In our society we encounter this enemy on a regular basis any time we allow the world system to define “success” for us instead of God. Success can be measured in many ways, for instance some measure their success according to their Productivity: “Try harder!” You need to measure up. Are you getting everything done? “Be Number One.” “Just Do It!” But winning the Rat Race simply makes you the fastest Rat.
Now, we do get to enjoy some great prizes: The unrelenting pressure of competition, the endless demand for busy-ness, learning to live with vindictive peer pressure, and knowing that our success is so often in the hands of those who can ruin our reputation or business with a casual remark on social media.
On the other end of the spectrum, some measure their success by how much they have rejected a previous view of success. They think by embracing the opposite of Productivity, say, Victimology or Entitlement, they have somehow escaped the excesses of the previous generation. But a new kind of excess is created, that of economic fantasy, a separation from the reality of how God created this world to work in this age.
Either way it is all the World System, no matter how it is expressed. If we want to overcome the World System, we start by going to God Himself to define success for us now, as individuals, without rejecting God’s control over the age we are living in.