Never Give Up
Don't Let A Fear of Failure Hold You Back
FEAR OF FAILURE
Failure can help to set
the stage for our greatest victory, if we use it to our advantage. What does this mean?
Well, when we use failure as an opportunity to seek God for answers and to re-strategize
our lives, then we have placed ourselves in a position to allow failure to make us better.
For example, in St. Luke 22:62, we find the Apostle Peter, the man who would be God’s
mouthpiece on the day of Pentecost, weeping bitterly after he had just denied Jesus Christ
for the third time. Yet, despite that event, Peter did not allow his failure to
permanently stop him. Instead, Peter wept, repented and continued to follow Jesus Christ.
Please understand that
there may be many times in our lives in which we will experience failure, but because of
Jesus Christ, failure does not have to be the end of the matter. So we must always
remember that as we continue to trust God in the midst of whatever is going on in our
lives, things will work out for our good. But if we allow a fear of failure to keep us
from trying again, we may never know the full potential of Jesus Christ inside of us.
Allowing a fear of failure to control our lives will cause us to hide from responsibility,
run away from challenges or just give up totally. Nursing a fear of failure can cause us
to spend the rest of our lives playing it safe and trying to protect ourselves from being
hurt. But God never called us to play it safe. So if God is saying that you can do
something and your fear of failure is saying that you can’t, then your feelings are
lying to you and that lie must be dealt with according to the Word of God. The truth is
that you can do all things through Christ, which strengthens you! The truth is that you
are more than a conqueror! So, allow the truth of the Word of God to control your thoughts
and your actions. You don’t have to hide or run away from your failure, because
Christ in you can handle anything that you will face.
Failure can also provide
us with an opportunity to identify those thoughts and feelings that we have about
ourselves that are detrimental to our spiritual growth. Let’s be honest, some of us
need to experience situations that cause us to examine ourselves and to make God-ordered
changes. For example, before the 22nd chapter of the book of St. Luke, the Apostle Peter
never thought that he would deny Jesus, but under pressure, he did just that. Similarly,
we may look at someone who is doing something wrong and say to ourselves, “I would
never do that.” However, the reality is that we really don’t know what we would
do if given the same situation. But failure has a way of bringing to the surface the pride
and secret feelings resting in our hearts that if allowed to grow unchallenged, would
hamper us spiritually. For instance, do you give up when you fail or do you keep going? Do
you become angry and blame everyone else for your failures or do you seek to learn from
your mistakes? Most importantly, when you fail at something, what kind of words do you say
to yourself?
Understand that it is not
necessarily the failure or mistake itself that causes the most damage. Instead, it is our
perception of the failure and how it makes us feel and think about ourselves that can
damage our lives the most. Because our perception of ourselves is manifested through the
words we use, we must be sensitive to the impact that our words have on our lives. Listen,
we can’t go through life thinking negatively and verbally degrading ourselves without
causing negative consequences to our self-esteem. For instance, when you fail at
something, do you automatically say things like “I am so stupid” or “I can’t
do anything right”? Unfortunately, your words are a reflection of your thoughts, and
if the words you use to describe yourself are always negative, it can keep you from living
the kind of life that God wants you to live. As we are reminded in Proverbs 23:7,
“For as a man thinketh in his heart, so is he.”
So we must allow the Word
of God, not our negative thoughts, to shape our feelings and responses to failure. This
does not mean that we ignore problems or look at life through rose-colored glasses.
Instead, we must learn to balance our emotional response to failure with the Word of God.
We must learn to put failure in its proper place and resist the urge to use it as an
opportunity to verbally beat ourselves up.
St. Matthew 12:35 lets us
know that “Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth will speak,” so if
I secretly spend my time telling myself how bad of a person I am, then I really don’t
believe that I can do all things through Christ that strengthens me. If I view myself as
an accident waiting to happen, then I really do not believe, no matter how many times I
say aloud “I am fearfully and wonderfully made,” that I am in fact fearfully and
wonderfully made. Listen, it is one thing to quote Scripture, but it is another thing for
that Scripture to become a part of your heart. Remember, if God says that you can, but
everything within you is saying that you cannot, then there is a hindrance in your thought
pattern that must be brought before Jesus Christ in prayer and eradicated with the Word of
God.
Unfortunately, many
people see failure as an indictment or personal mark against them rather than as a tool
that can be used to strengthen or to edify them. Experiencing failure in one area of your
life may indicate that change may be needed in that specific area, it does not meant that
your entire life is a failure. Failure is not an indicator of your self-worth; so don’t
view yourself as a failure just because you made a mistake. Do, however, look at those
areas in your life in which you have experienced failure and identify what role you
played, if any. Then, if possible, take steps to decrease your chances of failure in that
same area in the future.
For example, did you fail
to get a certain job because you don’t have a GED or high school diploma? If so, you
need to get that GED or diploma. Have you been fired from a job because you were
constantly late? If so, you need to make a change. Don’t let past failures keep you
down. Seek God for a plan to turn your failure into success, and when He gives you the
plan, don’t let a fear of failure stop you from implementing it. Now the plan that
God gives you may involve other people, but He never designed or intended any human to do
what only He can do. For instance, while the government and other people may all play a
part in our lives, our hope can’t be in the government or in people. Your Lord wants
to fellowship and to commune with you about your life. HE wants to give YOU a plan to make
your marriage better. HE wants to give YOU a plan to overcome any limitations you may be
facing.
God has a plan for you. Yes, you failed at something in the past and it may
be true that you will fail at something in the future. But failure is not an indicator
that you will never be able to succeed or to be victorious in your life. Unfortunately,
some people feel that they are destined for failure, so they never try to succeed or even
expect that things will ever work out for them in life. Sadly, people who expect failure
do not expect good things to happen to them and don’t demand more from themselves or
from people around them. But a mindset that expects defeat and thinks that things in life
will never improve is one that is based upon a lie and not upon the Word of God. Remember,
God said first to the children of Israel and now says to all who would believe on Him,
“I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the Lord, thoughts of peace, and
not of evil, to give you an expected end.” (Jeremiah 29:11)
God can go beyond
whatever we can ask or think, but He just needs someone to believe Him. So draw closer to
Jesus Christ, read the Word of God and begin to develop a relationship with Him. The
deeper your relationship is with Him, the more you will come to know Him and His love for
you. Remember, with a God-ordered plan, failure is just a stepping-stone to greatness. So,
don’t let a fear of failure limit your life and cause you to think small or to play
it safe ever again. Amen!!
Meditation Scriptures
And we know that all things work
together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to His
purpose. Romans 8:28
Commit thy works unto the Lord,
and thy thoughts shall be established. Proverbs 16:3
For as he thinketh in his heart,
so is he: Proverbs 23:7
There is no fear in love;
but perfect love casteth out fear: because fear hath torment. He that feareth is not made
perfect in love. 1 John 4:18
Behold, thou desirest truth in the inward
parts: and in the hidden part thou shalt make me to know wisdom. Psalms 51:6
Questions
1.
1. When you fail at something, what are the first thoughts
that come to your mind?
2.
2. How is a fear of failure preventing you from living a
full and rewarding life?
3.
3. Identify and meditate on some passages of Scripture
that can help you overcome fear.
God Bless You!
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