Monday, September 8, 2008

Here I go again!

Fear of failure/God's Strength

Here I go again, bare with me--please!

Does fear of failing get in your way of success? Trial and error are usually the prime means of solving life's problems. Yet many people are afraid to undertake the trial because they're too afraid of experiencing the error. What happens if at some point in your life you succeeded but NOW you have begun to fail? People make the mistake of believing that all error is wrong and harmful, when most of it is both helpful and necessary. Error provides the feedback that points the way to success. Only error pushes people to put together a new and better trial, leading through yet more errors and trials until they can ultimately find a viable and creative solution. To meet with an error is not to fail, but to take one more step on the path to final success. If we never fail we will never succeed. God can speak to us through our failures, just as much as he can speak to us through our successes. Do we really want to listen? Are we allowing our failures to keep us from our destiny?

If God gives you a passion about something and you never go for it because you wouldn't want to fail, then do you really have a passion about it? Passion drives us to accomplish the goals we have. Do you have goals? When you KNOW what God wants, and you choose not do it are you sinning? Uh, Yes! Even if it's not a SIN issue? Yes! What is God speaking to you, that you have allowed fear of failure to stop you from accomplishing? Some of those things could scare even the most "successful" person. BUT God is giving it to YOU. What are YOU doing with those things God has spoken to only YOU?

We have all heard that weaknesses can become strengths, but the opposite is true also. Every strength can become a weakness. Many of you might be saying, "I don't struggle with failure!" You might say, "I always succeed at what I put my mind to!" Well, it can become a handicap if you have never failed. Failure in our life helps us to overcome--with God's help. When success drives you--gradually, failure becomes unthinkable. Maybe you've never failed yet in anything that you've done, so have no experience of rising above it. Failure becomes the supreme nightmare: a frightful horror you must avoid at any cost. The simplest way to do this is never to take a risk. Stick rigidly to what you know you can do. Protect your butt. Work the longest hours. Double and triple check everything. Be the most conscientious and conservative person in the universe. Life involves taking risks!!! It makes life exciting. Are you really a success, if you NEVER step out a do something outside your comfort zone? I believe if you are a true success; your life WILL be marked with failure. You are not a FAILURE, unless you have allowed it to label who you are. Change your thinking.

I was reading a book the other day which had a phrase in it about how grace should define our Christian walk. It has stuck with me, and it's not even what the book was about. Grace comes through what we CANNOT accomplish. That is FAILURE! God never intended for us to be perfect. If He had--what's the point of grace? Grace helps us ACCOMPLISH things that we would otherwise fail to accomplish?

Did I make any sense? I just want more of us to realize that it's not US that should be living but Christ THROUGH us. He can give us the strength to accomplish those things we need to accomplish. If we rely on Him; He will help us through. Life will teach us, but not doing something because we might fail is such a sad existence for a Christian. Deciding to not do what you know is what God wants-- because you might fail......means your strength is in YOU, not in HIM!

Let your strength be in Him, and you can feel God's grace cover your failures. AND God's grace helping you be a SUCCESS. If our strength is in Him, we can only succeed. God wants us to learn a lesson in every failure, if we are learning those lessons then we are a success, even in failures. There is a treasure in everything we go through; are you finding it?

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