Fear Is A LieSample

“FEAR OF FAILURE” Tattoos are permanent. Bruises are temporary. When it comes to failure, we need to understand that it is not a tattoo; it is a bruise, a one-off event rather than a label to define your life. The fact that we fail at times does not make us a failure. It means we tried, and the key is to get up and have another go! We can only do that if we allow failure to teach us and grow us, rather than define us. This way, when we try, we win or we learn, but we never lose. The Bible is full of stories of people who failed; it is also full of stories of many who overcame their failures. The biggest heroes in the Bible are people who failed time and time again, but who God continued to use just because they didn’t give up trying. Micah 7:8 says, ‘Don’t gloat over me, my enemies, although I have fallen, I will rise.’ There is so much hope in this verse. To be aware of a failure, yet being able to keep focused on the comeback is a beautiful thing! Winston Churchill said, ‘Success is to keep failing without losing enthusiasm.’ In life we will have some small, and some epic, fails. Some we forget in a day; others we carry around for a lifetime. The question is: Do our failings make us stronger and wiser, or do they make us fearful to try again; fearful of taking a risk, or stepping out? In some jobs, there is zero tolerance for failure. If you are a pilot or a heart surgeon, there is zero tolerance to fail because lives depend on you. For this reason, they have had years of practice and training where they could fail. Heart surgeons had practice bodies. Pilots had simulators and test flights. These were platforms where there was room for failure many times over that allowed them to grow and become skilled. When it comes to our walk with God, we are all works in progress. We are all on a journey, and failures along the way will happen. Let’s embrace them, learn from them and prevent them from holding us back from where God has called us to go. God hasn’t called us to be perfect. He’s just called us to not give up.