‘A righteous man may fall seven times and rise again…’ Proverbs 24:16 NKJV
Until you overcome the fear of failure, you’ll be immobilised at the prospect of taking a risk. The important thing to remember when you fail is not to quit. History shows that failure can actually become a bridge to success. In school, Napoleon was forty-second in a class of forty-three, yet he went on to build an army that conquered much of the world. George Washington lost two-thirds of his military battles, yet against overwhelming odds he won the Revolutionary War and changed American history. Albert Einstein was such a slow learner that it was suggested he switch studies from physics to some other topic, yet he’s considered the father of the atomic age. When you recall these names you don’t remember their failures but their contributions to the world. Only when you consider your failure to be final, are you finally a failure. Failure is not an event, only an opinion, and as long as it’s not your opinion you can come back and succeed. ‘A righteous man may fall seven times and rise again.’ In his first inaugural address Franklin Roosevelt told the nation, ‘The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.’ Failure is not fatal; you can begin again. But the fear of failure could prove fatal to your goals by keeping you from trying again. After cataloguing every possible scenario that could come against us, such as tribulation, distress, persecution, famine, nakedness, peril, sword, Paul writes: ‘Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us.’ (Romans 8:37 NKJV) So the word for you today is-don’t be afraid of failure.
SoulFood: Zech 5-8, John 20:19-31, Ps 67, Pr 30:29-33
The Word for Today is authored by Bob and Debby Gass and published under licence from UCB International Copyright 2011
