“So do not throw away your confidence; it will be richly rewarded.” Hebrews 10:35 (NIV)
The world has only recently experienced the devastating impact of loss of confidence in its financial system and many are all still reeling from the economic tsunami it has so far unleashed both in our personal and national capacities. This implies that the presence of confidence normally guarantees success while its lack is a harbinger of failure. This means that if you lack confidence in God, yourself and your God-given dream, you are already a prime candidate for failure. So why is it necessary for us to understand failure and what is the difference between being a failure and failing to achieve a goal? In other words, if you fail at an endeavour, does that make you a failure?
Failure in the sense that you do not attain a predetermined goal is a fact of life and often a prerequisite for success. This is encapsulated in that popular saying that if at first you don’t succeed, try, try, and try again. When viewed from this perspective, failure is the price you pay for success and thus becomes a learning process by which you ultimately attain success. Therefore, you don’t become a failure just by failing, but only when you give up trying. Thankfully, God’s word teaches us that no failure needs be final. So, in whatever area of human endeavour you might have failed, understand that God specialises and excels at transforming abject failures into glittering successes and will turn your situation around for good if you will trust Him.
However, there is an aspect of failure that I intend to highlight for the rest of the week. The natural tendency is to blame all failures on the adversary who is out to steal kill and destroy, but what if the failure and the attendant difficulties you are currently experiencing in your life is God-ordained? Who then do you turn to for salvation? Many years ago, I had to confront this issue because I reached the conclusion that the difficulties I was experiencing were neither of Satan’s making nor due to my sin. In fact, I was sure that I could not have been suffering from God’s judgement because I knew that I was no worse sinner than the next person, yet it seemed as if that was the case. In my quest to get to the root of the matter, I earnestly sought God and received the comforting revelation that what I was going through was not as a result of sin, but is the uncomfortable outworking of God’s plan for my life in order to make me more productive for His kingdom. It was God’s way of nudging me out of the comfort zone to which I had become accustomed.
While every worldly index of success pointed to the fact that I was failing, I knew that that was not the case because I was fulfilling the three steps of progressive success. I was bang in the centre of what I knew to be God’s will for my life, was doing all in my power to develop myself to fulfil that plan and was positively impacting people’s lives on my success journey. So, if you find yourself in the same difficult situation, reject Satan’s attempts to brand you a failure, for you are a success in the making.
Prayer:
Father, I renew my confidence in your love today. Help me to keep my eyes on you even as I go through the fiery furnace of life. Help strengthen my faith in you and my conviction in the rightness of my way so that I can obtain the rich rewards you have undoubtedly prepared for every overcomer. Amen.