Failure
– a lack of success –
Three weeks ago I was at my small group and the subject that night was failure. I had just had one of the best weeks of my life and I walked in and heard the topic and honestly could say that I didn’t think I had ever struggled with failure. I was happy to see all the other people being honest about their fight with failure, but I honestly didn’t think failure was that big of an obstacle. Status update: I was wrong…
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Failure is not my leader
A phrase I have had to repeat multiple times in the past week. The fear of failure is the most debilitating thing in the world. It’ll cause you to give up on something that you are made for just because you may fail. “Failure is not my leader” is a war cry. A cry that I would yell at the enemy to show him that what I have, he cannot touch. That my passions are not his. That my joy is not his. That my calling is not his. Failure is not my leader.
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When I was walking through some failure the Lord highlighted someone to me. Zacharias. This guy gets so much hate. He was called “righteous in the sight of God” and he was an incredibly favored high priest. Then, an angel of God met him one day telling him that he was going to have a son named John that was going to be the prophets of all prophets. Needless to say, Zacharias didn’t quite believe him (rightfully so, this sounds insane) and the angel made him completely mute because of his unbelief. The angel made Him mute for NINE MONTHS! Imagine the thoughts he must have had. He’s a failure. He didn’t believe God and now he can’t speak to anyone. He must’ve questioned God’s goodness. If God actually liked him anymore because of his failure. The shame must have been overwhelming. Then when John is born he spoke.
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He begins to bless the Lord for what He had done. He began to prophesy over John’s life and in the middle he says one thing in particular that stuck out to me.
“To grant us that we, being rescued from the hand of the enemies, Might serve Him without fear…” (Luke 1:74 NASB)
Without fear. I’ve noticed that failure brings two things with it. Fear and Shame. Both fear and shame aim to disconnect you. They aim to make you feel apart from everyone else. They want to destroy your connection to others and Papa. I think Zacharias was speaking to that fear. The fear of Failure.
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Friend, He isn’t afraid of your failure. He actually likes failure a lot, it teaches so much. He wants you to walk into failure with Him and watch as He flips your world around.
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When I was thinking about writing this blog I already knew that I wanted it to be about failure, but I didn’t know exactly what. I began to ask the Father what picture He wanted to go with this blog and he asked me to try acrylic paint for the first time. He wanted me to accept the call to courage and whatever I painted to post with this blog.
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So if you’re walking through something you think you’re going to fail at understanding the I am too. This painting is a testimony of that. I want to challenge you to run straight into the failure and hold the Father’s hand while you do it. He wants to blow your socks off and all you just need to do is try. Remember.
Failure is not your leader.
