How do we manage success?

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Genesis 9:20-29

“After the Flood, Noah became a farmer and planted a vineyard. One day he became drunk on some wine he had made and lay naked in his tent. Ham, the father of Canaan, saw that his father was naked and went outside and told his brothers. Shem and Japheth took a robe, held it over their shoulders, walked backward into the tent, and covered their father's naked body. As they did this, they looked As they did this, they looked the other way so they wouldn't see him naked. When Noah woke up from his drunken stupor, learned what Ham, his youngest son, had done. Then he cursed the descendants of Canaan, the son of Ham: "A curse on the Canaanites! May they be the lowest of servants to the descendants of Shem and Japheth." Then Noah said, "May Shem be blessed by the LORD my God; and may Canaan be his servant. May God enlarge the territory of Japheth, and may he share the prosperity of Shem; and let Canaan be his servant." Noah lived another 350 years after the Flood. He was 950 years old when he died.”(NLT)

Most often after a great event like a successful crusade, an outreach for the Lord or even a great battle against the devil – what most Christian often refer to as a “Mountain Top Experience” – there is usually a very low experience. 

Let us take the case of Noah

What Noah went through in the flood was an exceptional experience. When he came down to repopulate the world with his three sons, he must have been, to say the least, excited and elated. God blessed him and blessed his farm work. The Bible says “God blessed Noah and his sons and told them, "Multiply and fill the earth.” Genesis 9:1 

The first test of the blessing was that Noah planted a vineyard and reaped bountiful harvest but what followed this was a sad event: "One day he became drunk on some wine he had made and lay naked in his tent. Ham, the father of Canaan, saw that his father was naked and went outside and told his brothers. Shem and Japheth took a robe, held it over their shoulders, walked backward into the tent, and covered their father's naked body. As they did this, they looked the other way so they wouldn't see him naked. When Noah woke up from his drunken stupor, learned what Ham, his youngest son, had done. Then he cursed the descendants of Canaan, the son of Ham: "A curse on the Canaanites! May they be the lowest of servants to the descendants of Shem and Japheth." His blessing resulted in his drunkenness and that led to the curse of his own son. How do we manage success?

Noah is not the only one in the Bible who failed to manage success.

Let us take the case of Elijah after his very successful campaign again the worshippers of Baal (First Kings 18:19-40). Elijah no doubt, was one of the great prophets in the Bible. He called on God to stop rain for forty-two months in Israel and God did it. He called for fire from heaven on the sacrifices in his contest with the 450 prophets of Baal and 400 prophets of Asherah; God did it. He killed all the prophets, outran Ahab’s chariot but forgot all that when Jezebel, the wife of Ahab, threatened his life. He ran for his life and hid himself in a cave. God later found him and asked him what he was doing. His answer was very revealing (Read Kings 19:1-18). Was he tired, exhausted, hungry, frustrated or did he simply forget God? I think it is a combination of all those. He simply could not manage his success. That marked the end of God’s use of him because God promptly replaced him with Elisha.

One more example. Let us look at the case of Peter. No doubt, again, Peter was one of the great Apostles. He did a lot more than all the others. He was the only one who walked on water with Jesus; he was the one who made the great speech on the day of Pentecost and 3,000 souls were saved; he was one of the three who saw the transfiguration of Christ on the mount. In Matthew 16:13-23, he made the great confession of the Divinity of Christ. After that great confession, and the commendation of Christ that Peter was being directed by the Holy Spirit, what followed was that Peter opposed Jesus and Jesus now told Peter "Get away from me, Satan! You are a dangerous trap to me. You are seeing things merely from a human point of view, and not from God's."  

Is there any wonder that the Bible warns us that our enemy the devil is lurking around looking for our unguarded moment and is ready to pounce on us to devour us? We need to be careful how we manage those moments when we are basking in the euphoria of our success. It is Peter himself who warned us about it: “Be careful! Watch out for attacks from the Devil, your great enemy. He prowls around like a roaring lion, looking for some victim to devour. Take a firm stand against him, and be strong in your faith. Remember that your Christian brothers and sisters all over the world are going through the same kind of suffering you are.” - First Peter 5:8-9 

Are there any other examples in scripture where there was a great crash after a mountain top experience? How do we manage our success? Share your thoughts!