FAILURE IS A PART OF WINNING

That statement is counter-intuitive and has taking me a long time to grasp its understanding.

We all have been told we learn from our mistakes. The key point is you have to be willing to learn or you will repeat them. Failure is a key to being effective. It is crucial to effective teaching, learning and problem solving. Mistakes can help us focus on determining what went wrong and why. On the way back to success, it is essential to recognize what and why and implement the solution so that mistakes do not happen again. Then, you forgot about looking back and look ahead.

In Exodus 4 and 5, we see Moses was obedient to God and the Israelites believed and worshipped as a response to Moses calling. Unfortunately, Pharaoh was not on board and refused Moses requests time and time again and accused the Israelites of laziness and he even doubled down on their harsh treatment. He wanted to crush their spirits and turn them against Moses and Aaron.

So, had Moses failed? From our viewpoint as humans we might see it as a huge misstep and failure on Moses part. But God already knew how Pharaoh would respond. So from God’s viewpoint all was going according to plan. God may have purposely set up this Moses misstep in order to show him the enormity of the task. He set it up this way to teach Moses he was going to have to depend on God totally. As the confrontations with Pharaoh mounted and intensified, Moses faith and bold trust in the Lord grew. This led to even more glory for God when all was said and done.

Being obedient to our calling to God does not guarantee that we will never fail.

As seen here, sometimes God’s best lesson plan for us involves failure.

Jesus said in John 15: 18-21 If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first. 19 If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you. 20 Remember what I told you: 'A servant is not greater than his master.' If they persecuted me, they will persecute you also. If they obeyed my teaching, they will obey yours also. 21 They will treat you this way because of my name, for they do not know the one who sent me.

If we find ourselves where we feel we are behind the 8 ball and it seems like there is no way we can do the right thing, be encouraged to persevere and by God’s grace you should count it all joy. James 1: 2-4 : 2 Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, 3 because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. 4 Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.”

“Ty Cobb holds the record for the highest lifetime batting average at .366. That means he failed to safely reach base via a hit .633 of the time or 63.3%, and he was the best by average. Success requires your desire for success exceed your fear of failure. Go thru each failure with enthusiasm knowing that success does not come easy, nor should it, as its rewards are worth it.”