Journey into Lightl

I hate to fail. I am also afraid to fail. I have been trained to think and feel that I am less important when I fail.

As a result, I have been reluctant to take big risks. My perceived worth is too tied up with getting good results. If I fail, I will struggle with a loss of self-esteem. So I usually play it safe.

But this is wrong!

This is not true!

This is not how God sees us when we fail. He sees us as “precious”, win or lose. “You are precious” (Isaiah 43:4).

We often rely on the lie that our importance depends on success and meeting some artificial standard.  But it doesn’t.

Our importance is a gift from God, and not something we earn through success.

We are so important to God that he died for us (John 3:16). Failure can’t diminish our importance to him. We are free to fail and not be diminished in any way in God’s eyes. He still values us, accepts us, and loves us the same. “[Nothing] shall be able to separate us from the love of God” (Romans 8:39).

So, I have begun to take risks over the last few years. I have stuck my neck out and tried, although failure was a strong possibility.

I have written a book because I believed God wanted me to. “But God, I have not been trained to write. I was trained to be an engineer.”

I went to seminary at 60 years old because God wanted me to. “But God, what am I suppose to do with a degree in my retirement years?”

I started a ministry to help people to connect to God in a deeper way. “But God, people may reject the teachings and you know how sensitive I am to criticism and failure.

By accepting our importance as a gift from God, we become freer to try and sometimes fail. We rely on our importance as something God gives us and not something we earn. “He who did not spare his own son but delivered Him up for us all, how will He not also with Him freely give us all things?” (Romans 8:32).

Yes, it hurts to fail. We feel disappointed when others think less of us, or we think less of ourselves for not meeting some goal of ours. But know that God does not think less of us. “I will never desert you, nor will I ever forsake you” (Hebrews 13:5).

Even when we do God’s will we can fail. Jeremiah was known as “The Weeping Prophet.” His ministry was a big failure. The people would not listen to his words.

But did he fail?

I don’t think so. He did what God wanted him to do. And he suffered for it. He probably did not feel very important at times.

Like Jeremiah, if we fail while obeying God, we have not failed. We have not been diminished. We have not lost a thing of true importance. “You are precious in My sight,.. You are honored and I love you” (Isaiah 43:4).

And if we fail while disobeying God, we have not failed to be important, or accepted or loved. We may be disciplined. “For those whom the Lord loves He disciplines” (Hebrews 12:6).

We have been blessed “with every spiritual blessings in the heavenly places” (Ephesians 1:3). One of these blessings is that we can fail and still be okay.