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Who wants to fail at anything? There may have been many times when we have failed to make the team, failed an exam, did not complete a mammoth sized piece of embroidery or craftwork one lost interest in, came last or second last in a school sports day race, failed at climbing a tree, or something else you can fill in the blank to. In the scheme of things, yes it was disappointing at the time, even earth shattering with tears shed, yet putting things into perspective now with hindsight, it is really nothing at all to be concerned about. With the benefit of time these are memories we now most likely have the ability to laugh at and hopefully have learnt a thing or two from over the years. We strive to do our best yet we are human and cannot be good at simply everything.
Perhaps you have been made redundant, lost your job, or sacked recently leaving you with strong feelings of inadequacy and failure. As trite as it might sound, this too will pass given time and the best thing you can do is "get up on that horse and ride again" to use a fitting analogy. Get back out there and try, try again. Persistence is a character trait to value as without it one might as well resign themselves to fail as life inevitably throws all sorts of challenges our way. Set mini goals, achievable aims to bolster your confidence to begin with and go from there. Today it might be to make that hard choice, the better choice to get out of bed, showered and dressed. Fight with your mind, which might tell you it's all too hard and what is the point anyway! The point is you are alive, you need interaction with others even in a counselling group or support network while things are not what you want them to be. Build from there because life is worth living even if for others when you cannot do it for yourself at this point. The main thing is we must NEVER EVER GIVE UP. One famous quotation from Winston Churchill is "Never give up on something that you can't go a day without thinking about.” "The Crisis" a book authored by Churchill is a good read and recommended to take your mind off yourself when the walls are closing in all around you during the crisis you are currently experiencing.
Repeated rejection is hard and likely to bring thoughts of inadequacy leading to depression and even suicide if allowed to continue and grow. God is tough enough and smart enough to handle anything we could ever think of to share with Him. "Spilling your guts" is the best thing you can do for God to know that you are hurting and can't take any more pain and suffering right now. If it feels strange or weird to talk to God then maybe you are the type that would be better off writing a letter until you are ready to kneel down and talk silently (the devil cannot read our thoughts this way as God can). The point is you need to help yourself and the best way is going to God. I do not say this lightly but with authority as I had to find this out the hard way after one long year of struggling with debilitating illness, with mounting debt, and lack of trust in anyone or anything in this world. At that time I felt lost and completely alone in my struggles. When finally reaching out to God it felt like a huge weight had been lifted off my shoulders through a verbal lashing out about how unfair life was and can be. God heard my words of anger mixed with sorrow, grief, disgust, anguish and pain. He saw my hot tears of despair and comforted me by revealing to me that I can trust His Word, the Bible, which for many years I refused to look at or even touch. Times are becoming tough and will be even tougher in the future so we definitely need a plan. I used to let things transpire or just "happen" to me, but now I know this is setting myself up for failure. Why be reactive when I can be proactive? My reactions often caused more pain and disgust in myself which I now see as lowering my standards to be like those who do not know any better and lack any semblance of self control. The ability to make a conscious decision to be more Christ-like is what we should be striving for and value this highly above everything else. It takes some thought, preparation, and planning.
Planning can be something that is naturally fun and exciting to do when we have a healthy attitude and mindset and we get this from God who is the Master Planner and our Creator. His plan for us is incredible even though we only get a glimpse of it now through a dark or foggy glass as it were (1 Corinthians 13:12) until we are all ready for the full revealing which will come once we are changed at our resurrection from physical to supernatural beings to become just like Jesus Christ and God the Father. Reading 1 Corinthians 15 for the first time was quite an eye opener for me and this resurrection chapter is still of great comfort now and to be held onto tightly for the future. Before knowing God I thought death was something permanent and to be feared. Now it is an event none of us can escape or avoid but it is not the end of the story. Ecclesiastes 9 informs us that death is inevitable and while we are alive we need to make our lives count for something by keeping God's commandments instead of wasting our time in vain pursuits. This is what the wisest man, King Solomon, learnt in his lifetime, and we can obtain great benefit from those lessons and his observations which we find throughout the book of Ecclesiastes in our Bibles. By doing this we learn to love God and others, we learn to give, we resist sin because sin separates us from God, we please God and in doing so we become overcomers in order to live righteously, thereby emulating Christ our Saviour, who paid the ultimate price for the sins of the world. Jesus died for us while we were still sinners -- the least we can do is return His love by living according to God's will which is perfect as He knows what is best for us and will always lead us away from failure and towards a meaningful life rich with blessings.
Failure is simply not an option for God's children and our encouragement comes through reading the Bible every day. Philippians 1:6 gives us hope "being confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ". We just need to be willing to follow Christ and plan to succeed as God helps us to ensure we do not fail. God will not test us beyond anything we can cope with and is our Advocate as we journey on in this life with all sorts of trials. Will it be easy? No, nothing worthwhile is easy, but it will be necessary in order to show God that we want to be with Him forever and ever living eternally according to His perfect rules and laws rather than relying on our own faulty human reasoning and carnal human nature. God sets us up to succeed by giving us part of His power upon baptism -- His Holy Spirit, also known as The Helper which we draw from, listen to, are led by and allow God to work through us. We still have a choice in whether we listen to God or have our own way but after doing this enough with plenty of mistakes, failures, pain and suffering, the choice is clear that God's way always works for our benefit. Following Christ is the very best choice you can ever make. The example of Simon Peter in John 6:66-68 is marvellous and full of joy to me and I cannot help but smile at the exchange between them where it is abundantly clear to the apostle that the only way to live a life that makes any sense is through Christ. Dear Peter says "there is nowhere else to go" and he is right! Imagine Christ's delight and deep joy in this recognition.
The next time you think you cannot go on any more due to pain, suffering, trials, the things in life that may come our way to threaten our relationship with God, then dig deep and know God has your back and will protect you. Allow God to build your faith, trust and hope in Him and you will ensure that failure will never be an option. The more we wrestle with thoughts of hardship, what might happen, stressful imaginings, the more troubled we can become, and this is playing right into the devil's hands. How he wants us to fall, to fear, to worry, to stress out over all the things we need in life and fail. As soon as any negative rubbish enters your head, immerse yourself by reading scripture to refresh your mindset and remove all the destructive junk the enemy dumps over us. Let it be like the proverbial water off a duck's back. The devil is not going away, not yet anyway, so our plans for shrewd methods must be watertight to ensure God is always with us and for us thereby thwarting our enemy. Honestly, the more you talk to God the stronger your position will be as your heart will desire faithful obedience over everything else in your life. You will be able to have a most wonderful relationship with God over all others because He is always on call, will never give up on you, and always listens to every concern you have no matter how small it is. God's great love for those who desire and commit to turning their life around is so incredible and powerfully profound. Do not believe the lie that we do not need to change when we definitely do as we have not yet been made perfect and we still sin. It is a life-long process.
We really do not have time to entertain thoughts of failure. Failing is not for us as we will need to help all those who have gone before us -- our long dead family members, friends, and people we knew while they lived amongst others. If you need further encouragement it is there right at your fingertips to click on a link for an inspirational sermon full of wisdom just like the one here: https://www.ucg.org/sermons/a-story-of-dominion Just remember God can squash Satan like the putrid bug he is in an instant but He allows what we have now until His elect are made ready and mankind has tried every type of activity under the sun to come to the point of realising the futility of our ways. If we do things our way we will fail, if we do things God's way, then failure is not an option. Whatever you do, please get started on your relationship with your Saviour today because time is ticking away and it takes time to get to know God and what His purpose is for you and your life. It is within your power to turn your life around like I did and I encourage you most completely and sincerely, knowing without a shadow of a doubt, that you will never regret this for all eternity. Your choice.