Add this entry to Your Favorites | [0] Favorites [2] Comments

Please wait...

Have you ever tried so hard to make something work, and no matter how much time, effort, and love you put into it, it still didn't work?
It's so easy in these moments to feel like a failure. You can analyze every move you've made, and research every minor detail trying to see what went wrong, but you never can seem to put your finger on it. If you have faced these kinds of situations, then congratulations! Welcome to the human race!
Everyone faces a time of failure. The failure is not what is important It's how we deal with it that really matters.

When you have tried your best, and I don't mean just given it a good try, I mean given your all, blood, sweat and tears and you still have a failed result, there
is a great temptation to just give up. Everything inside you says "I can't stand another rejection or failure".

There are so many stories of people who kept persevering against enormous odds, and eventually succeeded. Stories like Alexander Graham Bell's invention of the telephone, and the Wright Brother's first flying machine have been pounded into our heads since we were children. The moral of their stories is, if you keep trying and never give up, it will eventually work. But the truth is, there are far more stories of people who kept trying, and went to their grave without ever seeing the success they believed would eventually happen. They died with a spirit of failure hanging over them.

So how should we react to the spirit of failure when it confronts our lives? There's a familiar Bible story that comes to mind. The disciples were out fishing all night and had no success. The story goes that Jesus came to the shore where he found them washing their nets. They were WASHING THEIR NETS. They had quit. They had given up. They had no success though they tried all night. They were tired. No doubt they were hungry. But it was over. They had failed. They had accepted the spirit of failure.

Jesus looked at them washing their nets and decided to show them how to break that spirit. He told them to start over. Put the nets back in the boat. Take the boat back to the water and cast on the other side. The disciples had a choice to make. They could accept their failure, or they could start over and do it HIS way. Thank God, they chose HIS way. When they started over they caught so many fish that they broke their nets, and the spirit of failure.

I remember about 21 years ago, I tried to write a song one night. I was alone at home sitting at my piano. I tried for hours but nothing came that was any good at all. Sometime around mid-night I closed my note book feeling like a failure as a songwriter. I spoke to God and said "Well, You just must not want to use me as a writer, because I was here and available to be used, and YOU didn't show up". It wasn't much of a prayer of thanksgiving or praise. It was a complete spirit of failure that was taking over my mind. I remember asking God "Don't You have anything to say to me, or through me?

I got up from my piano and went to my bedroom and started turning back the covers. As I was preparing to go to bed with a defeated spirit I found myself singing "Thus Saith the Lord of Hosts, Thus Saith the Lord". I stopped and said "Lord, what are You saying? I felt a gentle nudge from His spirit tell me "Go back to the piano and find out"! I didn't really want to return to the place where I had just failed. But I decided to trust the Lord. I sat down and played a chord on the piano, and the song "Thus Saith The Lord" was birthed in about ten minutes. It happend almost faster than I could right it down. I felt such a tremendous flow of the Holy Spirit and I had church with no one else there but me and the Lord.

I thought that God had given that song for just me and the situation of failure I was experiencing that night. But I was wrong. Every singer I showed the song to wanted to use it. It was immediately recorded by the Cathedrals. When I heard Glen Payne sing it on stage at NQC that year, I felt the same presence of the Lord that had broken that spirit of failure off of me the night I wrote it.

Christians are often told "NEVER GIVE UP". And I guess, that in the proper context, that is true. But I like what Howard Goodman wrote way back in 1951 when he said "GIVE UP! AND LET JESUS TAKE OVER". I have found that philosophy of giving up to be the most beneficial to my own life. Sometimes I need to quit what I'm doing even if I think it's God's will. I can't start over or have a new beginning until I stop doing it my way. We have to stop one thing in order to start another. God can multitask just fine, but it never works when we try to do things His way, and our way at the same time.

I have found myself at a place in life now where I'm facing some failures that I don't understand and I can't change. But it's so good to know that God didn't let me come to this place without showing me ahead of time what can happen when I give up and let Him take over. That song I wrote 21 years ago was just a small example of what I know He can do my life in a much larger way now.

Whatever it is in your life that hasn't worked, and made you feel like a failure, I want to tell you today that God Cares. He wants to break that spirit of failure from your life. If you've already given up, that's ok. Jesus knows what to do with you. And if you are still pursuing something your own way that has not worked, maybe you should consider giving it up. That's not an easy place to come to. But when you let Jesus take over completely where you have failed, you may find that you won't be washing your nets when its over. You'll be shopping for new ones because the old ones are broken.

Until next time, keep on writing!

Daryl

Reader Comments

Add Comments

If you are seeing this form you are not a Member or have not logged in. Why not consider becoming a Member? All comments must be made with a valid email address. Comments with invalid email addresses are subject to removal.

Membership allows you to have a prepared signature of your choice applied to every comment you make, as well as the ability to choose an avatar to display next to your name to help identify your posts. Members are also given opportunity to vote weekly in our Weekly Chart as well as special Members Only contests, polls and giveaways during the year. If you are already a member, login here, otherwise please register here.

**Note: Forums membership is a seperate membership.

By posting you agree to our Comments Policy

Name:
Email:
Location:
URL:
Comment:
	Remember my personal information
	Notify me of follow-up comments?
Please enter the word you see in the image below: