Jesus is the key to everything. He is the only source of salvation and satisfaction. He delivers us from sin’s condemnation and control. Focusing fully on Him is  the only way for the saints to be successful (Heb. 12:1-3). Milton Vincent explained it well when he wrote these words:

“On the most basic levels, I desire fullness, and fleshly lusts seduce me by attaching themselves to this basic desire. They exploit the empty spaces in me, and they promise that fulness will be mine if I give in to their demands. When my soul sits empty and is aching for something to fill it, such deceptive promises are extremely difficult to resist.

Consequently, the key to mortifying fleshly lusts is to eliminate the emptiness within me and replace it with fullness; and I accomplish this by feasting on the gospel. Indeed, it is in the gospel that I experience a God who glorifies Himself by filling me with His fullness. This is the God of the gospel, a God who is satisfied with nothing less than my experience of fullness in Him!

Indeed, as I perpetually feast on Christ and all His blessings found in the gospel, I find that my hunger for sin diminishes and the lies of lust simply lose their appeal. Hence, to the degree that I am full, I am free. Eyes do not rove, nor do fleshly lusts rule, when the heart is fat with the love of Jesus!”

Jesus saith unto them, My meat is to do the will of him that sent me, and to finish his work – John 4:34

Success eludes most people because they don’t know what it is. Simply put, to discover and do the will of God is success. He who finds and finishes God’s will has not failed! Here we see Jesus, as always, as our perfect example. An article from the Baptist Bible Hour said it well.

“What drives you? What motivates you? What sustains you? Jesus revealed to his disciples, when they could not understand his passing up a lunch break, that his driving motivation was the will of his heavenly Father.

My meat, my food, my sustenance comes from doing the will of God and finishing the work of God, Jesus says. Notice that it does not suffice Jesus’ appetite to simply know the will of God or to study His works. Jesus finds his fulfillment in actively engaging in the work of God and persevering until it is completed.

Too often we think of Christianity as a set of beliefs only. But following Christ invariably means hungering to know the will of God and being satisfied only when we are engaged in it. Nothing else can substitute for active obedience.

And Jesus takes it a step further than obedience; his mission statement includes completion of the work that God has for him to do. Jesus is not just trying to salve his conscience or make a show of obedience; his satisfaction only comes in the achievement of God’s purpose for him here.

What about you? Is your meat to do your Master’s will? Are you actively seeking to practice the Christian faith, in public and in private? Are you striving to finish the great purpose for which God has placed you here?”

“Peace I leave with you, My peace I give unto you; not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.”–John 14:27

“A World of Happiness in an Ocean of Peace.” That slogan decorated hotels and restaurants across Hawaii in early December of 1941. The island of Oahu was considered remote, safe, and peaceful, where one could live close to the flowers and the warm surf of the Pacific. Most Honolulu residents didn’t lock their doors, and some homeowners hadn’t had keys for years … a world of happiness in an ocean of peace.

… until December 7, 1941, when Pearl Harbor was attacked.

The world’s peace can disappear very quickly. The world gives peace, but takes it away. Jesus gives us a legacy of lasting peace. Matthew Henry said about John 14:27: “When Christ was about to leave the world He made His will. His soul He committed to His Father; His body He bequeathed to Joseph to be decently interred; His clothes fell to the soldiers; His mother He left to the care of John: but what should He leave to His poor disciples that had left all for Him? Silver and gold He had none; but He left them that which was infinitely better — His peace.”

The peace of the believer is deep, calm, lasting, everlasting. The world, with all its blandishments, cannot give it. The world, with all its fluctuations … cannot take it away.
From an anonymous 1854 devotional book, The Words of Jesus (Turning Point)