A few months back I encouraged you to cultivate an excellent story this season as you spent your summer days investing in hearts and being missional about adding value to people around you. My passion was to bear witness to the grace and love of Jesus, to be the voice of truth so that my words and life would encourage complete surrender to the Lord. It’s the desire of my heart to build character in myself and those around me and I know that God has purposed in me to create life and beauty wherever I go.
I have high hopes that you made the most of every opportunity and have finished strong the race you were running.
I came out of the starting blocks strong and empowered by the Holy Spirit. It was a successful first leg and I’m humbled to say my focus stayed on Jesus and I let him guide and direct me around each curve and bend in the path. I should’ve borrowed the blinders from the horses because around the curve going into the last leg, I let my focus drift off the prize and shift to a million other distractions.
I was still in the race, but running it in my own strength, with my own mindset and I get all the credit for not finishing strong. There’s no exciting ending to share with you, no impressive stats of people’s lives changed for his glory because of the race I ran. I stand empty handed before you offering no trophies to hang in the trophy case.
I have not been victorious and maybe you have been like me lately, defeated and weary from failure. My personality carries extremely high standards, and to be honest, failures like these have the potential to set me back with much grief and despair. I know the good I ought to do and when I fail to do it, my first instinct is to throw in the towel and forget about doing anything good EVER again.
The agony of not measuring up to my own expectations flows into every area of my life and if I don’t battle this defeat with the truth of God’s word, I become paralyzed and useless to his Kingdom purposes.
I’m praying for you one reader that this is for, do not let your failures cause you to throw in the towel and give up. What good is salt if it loses its saltiness? It might as well be thrown out and trampled underfoot. This is not God’s plan for you!
I’m so thankful that I can boast in my weakness because it’s then that the power of Christ may rest upon me. God has great plans for you, my friend, he wants to use you to be a light in this world. He wants to use you to flavor relationships and add value to the people in your life. Do not stop doing the good you know you ought to do just because you lost one race. There are more races in front of you so keep training, keep seeking God’s face and keep being willing to run again.
I know God’s word does not come back void and I also believe that all things, even failures, work together for the good of those that love him and are called according to his purpose. I believe you are called for his purposes and he wants to use even your failures to refine you so you learn and grow and are more equipped for the next race, the next task.
Yes, I stand before you empty handed with no trophies to prove I was obedient and faithful but I also stand before you with trophies which your hands cannot hold but my heart have been strengthened and my character refined.
I am loved! You are loved. You are called by God to be a light, to shine bright, to be a pillar of encouragement to the body of Christ. You, beloved, were crafted for such a time as this. There are good works to be accomplished that if not accomplished by you, may never be accomplished because they are your good works. Only you can add value to that person in your life. Only you can parent those children with the overflowing of grace and mercy. Only you are equipped specifically for ministering to those hurting near you. It’s the words of Christ through YOU that will cultivate an excellent story in the lives of others. It’s you that God wants to use to change people’s lives for his glory. It’s your mission, it’s your race. It’s you that the Holy Spirit wants to empower to be his hand and his feet right here and right now.
Take courage, to not let your failures define who you are today. Let yesterday’s failures inspire you to be more excellent today.
A Mama is not Defined by her Failures is a post from: I Take Joy
