Failing forward

For though the righteous fall seven times, they rise again, but the wicked stumble when calamity strikes.”

Proverbs 24:16

Failure is apart of God’s divine and holy plan for our lives. Often times we do things within our own understanding, and by our own strength. And the truth is, if we could do it all alone we wouldn’t need God. But we can’t do it all alone, and we do need God. The Bible says “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me” (Phillipians 4:13). It is the power of the Holy Spirit invested in us that allows us the grace to go forth after failure. It is the power of the Holy Spirit that gives us the wisdom, knowledge and understanding to achieve goals and find solutions.

Failure is always attached to a negative connotation, but the truth is many people are blinded by the process of success. The process of success mirrors failure until you’ve reached a pinnacle or milestone and are able to look back and see how far you’ve come. Failure is hurtful to the ego, and bruises the spirit, but what about all of the strategies and techniques failure teaches you along the way?

• Failure teaches us how to rely on God •and not our own understanding.
• Failure teaches us the important or timing and planning.
• Failure provides an opportunity to be humble, and to learn because we don’t have all the answers.
• Failure teaches us how to be patient and work towards solutions.
• Failure will inevitably teach us how to be compassionate towards other people in a similar situation.

If you desire to do great things, you will fail during the process many times. But each failing moment teaches you a new strategy or structure. Failure causes you to look at the situation from a different angle in order to figure out new solutions.

The Bible says “no good thing comes from the flesh” (Romans 7:18). God knows our flesh is weak and failures will happened. But the power of conviction by the way of the Holy Spirit and repentance offers you grace! It is the grace that allows God to continue to bless you and turn your failures into victories. But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me.
(2 Corinthians 12:9). Therefore when a righteous man falls, he gets back up!

A few years ago I became a published author. In the beginning I had no idea what I was doing. I knew I wanted to write, but I didn’t understand the process of actually publishing a book. After I wrote the book, I learned that I needed to hire an editor. After hiring an editor I had to hire a formatter. After hiring a formatter, I had to hire someone to do my cover art. Every time I thought I was getting closer there was something new I had to do in order to fulfill the mandate of becoming a published author.

Looking back, I felt like a failure the entire time. Every time I thought I was getting ahead, there was something else but I had to do that was unfamiliar to me and a total surprise. It looked like more of obstacles than steps towards success. But now looking back after publishing 13 times, I can clearly see, I needed to fail the way I did. Why? Because I was failing forward! Every roadblock ended up being a learning experience. And I’ve grown so much in that area I can teach you how to publish a book step by step. What looks like failure was really the steps toward success.

I want to encourage you, to get back up and endure til the end. Even righteous men fall, but they get back up. No matter what you think you’ve done, no matter how tired you are, there is restoration available for you in Christ. There is also God‘s wisdom to help you turn failures into victories. keep leaning on God. When the time is right, and you’ve suffered a little while, you will be fully prepared and lacking nothing. Ready to walk into your breakthrough season with all of your experience through your failures. Run well.

I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me”

Philippians 4:13