“Pride goes before destruction, a haughty spirit before a fall” (Pro. 16:18).
Perhaps the
biggest obstacle that a person has to be able to overcome in maintaining a
positive attitude is dealing with failure. Rick Warren said, “The fear of
failure is a universal fear–it is often more detrimental than the failure
itself. If you never learn how to disarm it, you’ll miss all that God wants to
do in your life.” Now sometimes we don’t always realize the things that we are
fearful of. Perhaps some of you don’t think that you have a fear of failure.
Thus, I would like you to consider the following questions.
1. Do you ever worry about what other people think
about you?
2. Do you ever worry about your ability to go after
a dream or desire that is in your heart? But maybe you have thought, “I don’t
know if I could do that.”
3. Do you ever worry that people will lose interest
in you? Maybe it is a spouse, friend, or employer.
4. Do you ever worry that people will think you are
not smart or competent? Thus, you need to hide because you don’t want people to
think that you are not smart.
5. Do you ever worry about disappointing people
whose opinion you value?
6. Have you ever told anybody beforehand that you
don’t expect to succeed at something in order to lower their expectations?
7. Do you ever get last minute headaches, stomach
aches, or other physical symptoms while preparing for something that you think
is important?
8. Do you tend to procrastinate and run out of time
when you have to prepare for something?
If you answered
yes to any one of these questions, then you struggle with the fear of failure.
Now, no matter how successful you are in some areas of your life, there are
other areas that you fail at. In fact, you fail in more areas of your life than
you succeed. And that is true of all of us. No one can be good at everything.
We can only be really good at a few things. Thus, most things in life you are not
good at. In those areas you are a failure.
So we don’t want
others to know about those things. Why? Because most people tend to be very
preoccupied with the opinions of others. This is a reality for the majority of
us. We worry about what other people, especially those we are closest to or
admire the most think. If we don’t measure up in their eyes, then we are a
failure.
According to the
Bible, none of us measure up in God’s eyes; we are all failures (Rom. 3:10-26).
However, that is the beauty of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Jesus came to save
us from our failures, specifically our sin failures. It is important to note
that not every failure is sin, but every sin that we commit is a failure. The
Bible says that Jesus came to save sinners (1 Tim. 1:15). In John 6:40 Jesus
says, “For My Father's will is that everyone who looks to the Son and
believes in Him shall have eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last
day.” Therefore, instead of being
preoccupied with the opinions of others, we can focus on Jesus, and His perfect
love for us that casts out all our fears, including our fear of failure.
The second key
from this scene that can help us to overcome our fear of failure is to accept
wise counsel. Often times, our pride prevents us from accepting godly
counsel. This was the case with Solomon’s son King Rehoboam.
When Rehoboam
became king, the people asked him to lighten the heavy load that his father
Solomon had placed them under. At this, Rehoboam did the right thing in seeking
out the counsel of others. However, the problem was that he chose to accept the
advice of those who told him what he wanted to hear. Thus, he accepted the
advice of his friends and rejected the advice of the godly men who had been a
part of his father’s cabinet. Then as a result of refusing to accept wise
counsel, Rehoboam lost much of his kingdom. This is why it is important to seek
out Godly counsel, spend time praying about the matter, examining what
Scripture has to say, and then leaving the results in the Lord’s hands.
The third thing
that tends to lead people to a fear of failure, again, it is a result of pride.
And that is, ignoring the power of prayer. James 4:2 says, “You want
something but don’t get it. You kill and covet, but you cannot have what you
want. You quarrel and fight. You do not have, because you do not ask God.” Anytime
we don’t take things to God in prayer, we are naturally setting ourselves up
for failure.
The fourth thing
that tends to lead people to a fear of failure, again is a result of pride. And
that is, depending on one’s own strength. Paul had to learn this the hard way.
2 Corinthians 1:8-9 tells us how Paul suffered great hardships, even to the
point that he didn’t know if he was going to survive it. Yet all of that was a
learning lesson so that he and those with him would stop relying on themselves
and learn to rely only on God, who raises the dead.
Elsewhere Paul
talked about the Lord giving him a thorn in the flesh to keep him from becoming
conceited. In this, I think that it is interesting to note how Paul was
hindered from earthly success by his thorn in the flesh. Yet ultimately, as a
result, he would stop depending upon his own strength and instead upon the
grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. So for Paul, he eventually learned that things
are not always as they appear and, according to God’s standard, he was
strongest whenever he appeared to be weakest.
Therefore, he
said in 2 Corinthians 12:10, “For Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in
insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak,
then I am strong.” So how does one
stop depending upon their own strength and instead depend upon the Lord? It
begins by realizing your need for Jesus. You and I need Him at every moment of
the day. Scripture tells us that apart from Jesus we can do nothing (John
15:5).
Lastly, if you
want to overcome the fear of failure, and even overcome your failures, you need
to end the habit of procrastination and quitting before you succeed. Often times
we are so close to success. Yet we either procrastinate in the matter or quit
right before the breakthrough would have happened. Whenever we
procrastinate, or we quit before we achieve the success that we are searching
for, we are guaranteed to fail. We could literally talk about tons of
people who failed over and over and over again in route to monumental success.
People like Thomas Edison who failed 10,000 in trying to create the lightbulb.
Or how about General George Washington who lost 2/3 of all the battles that he
fought against in the British in the American Revolution.
If he would have
quit, we may still be a part of Great Britain today. Or we could talk about
Babe Ruth. Did you know that not only did Babe Ruth lead the league in
homeruns, but he also lead the league in his number of strike outs. Or how
about Michael Jordan who was cut from his high school basketball team, yet he
became one of the greatest players to ever play the game. How was that
possible? Because Michael Jordan refused to accept failure as an option. He
endured through the failures.
Similarly, we
could talk about several individuals in the Bible who experienced great
failures: Noah, Moses, David, Jeremiah, Paul, etc. Yet they are remembered as
successful on account of the Lord’s help, and their determination to not give
up. Proverbs 24:16 says it like this. “For though a righteous man falls
seven times, he rises again, but the wicked are brought down by calamity.”
And Galatians 6:9 says it like this, “Let us not become weary in doing good,
for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.”
Therefore,
knowing these things we can, with God’s help, overcome our fear of failure as
we humbly submit to Him.
In His service,
Matt
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