Failure is not final
The only time we’re really defeated is when we stop moving.
- Using Failure
How can God use our many failures and turn them into success? I can’t count all the inventors who, if they had given up, would have never invented great things like the airplane, the light bulb, the television, and any other number of things. If we see failure as not being final, we’ll persevere and keep moving forward. If we can see that our failures can be launching pads for future success. One lady who was swimming across the English Channel finally gave up, but when she got in the boat, she could see through the fog that she was less than a mile away. If she’d known that, she said that she wouldn’t have given up. The point being, success may come just after the time when you feel like giving up. The great inventors learned that if it didn’t work, they kept trying and trying, but one thing they didn’t do. They didn’t give up.
- Blood, Sweat & Tears
Most people can pour their life into something and yet see no tangible or visible results, but it may be that just down the road that it all smooth’s out. The bumpy ride you’re having today may be easier once you’re down the road a ways. Nothing worthwhile comes easily and it may take a little blood, sweat, and tears to endure the road of failure which should ultimately lead to success. The only time you’re really defeated is when you stop moving.
- Getting Strength
We can do nothing without Jesus Christ (John 15:5), but with Christ Who will strengthen us, we can do all things (Phil 4:13) within His will. That’s why the Apostle Paul could say, “I know how to be brought low, and I know how to abound. In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need” (Phil 4:12), so he would say, stay on the road, even if it appears to be going nowhere. Paul was content with the ride. Keep going and keep trying to find the road to success. This trip’s going to require us to be content with the ride, but it’s not so much the journey as it is the destination for believers.
- Failure is Not Final
Solomon once wrote that “the righteous falls seven times and rises again, but the wicked stumble in times of calamity” (Prov. 24:16). Perhaps Solomon knew very well what it meant to fall, as he fell into serious sin after marrying a foreign woman and falling into idolatry, but he did finally repent near the end of his life. The difference between Christians and the lost are that we can fall into sin, but the unsaved dive and swim in it and don’t seek to repent of it. We all fall into sin, but we don’t stay there. We get back up, and God forgives us of all our sins and then cleanses us from all unrighteousness (1 John 1:9). We get a fresh start every day!
- Biblical Examples of ‘Failing Forward’
Though it may seem counterintuitive, it is through the experience of failure that we come to know Christ in the power of his resurrection (Philippians 3:10). This knowledge gives us the ability to “fail forward” through the many setbacks we face in life. Scripture is the perfect tool to engage people on this point.
For instance, you might appropriate the example of a well-known figure like Paul. Paul was a minister of the gospel par excellence, yet his work was riddled with what could be perceived as failures. Perhaps greatest of all was his repeated attempts to reach the Jewish people, resulting in him being flogged, jailed, and run out of town. How many times must a man be rejected before he finally gets the point? Yet it was Paul’s apparent failure to reach the Jews that led him to turn to the Gentiles.
Of course, it is important to keep in mind that God intended all along for Paul to be “a light for the Gentiles, so that all the world may be saved” (Acts 13:47). But if failure can be summed up as coming short of one’s goal, then it does seem that Paul “failed” to reach the Jews as he hoped he would. The sorrow he felt over this fact is evident in his letter to the Romans (see Romans 9:1-3). Yet it was through this “failure” that God worked out his plan for Paul to take the gospel to the Gentiles. One door of ministry closed so that another, wider door, might open.
- Conclusion:
When you do fail at something, take heart; you’re not alone. Others in higher positions, who have succeeded, have also failed spectacularly. So try something new. Don’t be afraid or defined by that moment. Surround yourself with friends and family who support you. Be in Scripture and prayer. In the providence of God, there is a purpose in failing.
- Prayer:
Dear Heavenly Father, I pray for boldness to step out to do what we we're made to do and faith to trust You are ordering every step. In Jesus Christ Name, I pray, Amen.
Sol Neelima