"Failure: God's Backdoor to Success"

September 2008 Luncheon
Speaker:  Karen Warin
“Failure: God’s Backdoor to Success”

 If I’ve only failed at something once a day since the day I was born, as of today I have failed 18,273 times!  Not a real encouraging statistic!  But the truth is that we all fail.  We live with it every day, because we are flawed human beings.  The good news is, if we know how to respond to failure the way God intends then He’ll turn it into success.First, we must recognize that there are different types of failure.

Spiritual Failure is the consequence of disobeying or disregarding God’s directives for our lives.  Because of our sin natures we will inevitably get into trouble with our own, or other people’s words, actions and thoughts.  (2 Sam 11; John 18; Jonah)

Performance Failure occurs when we fall short of a particular goal or achievement.  In spite of our best efforts we lose the game, fail the test, miss the deadline, etc.  (John 5:7)

Perceived Failure is something that happens when we don’t achieve the outcome we expected, or that others expected of us, and so we assume we have failed, when actually God had a different plan. (Isaiah 6:8-10, Judges 20)

Regardless of how or why (or even if) we’ve failed, there are some key steps we can take to turn loss into gain.  God has a purpose in every trial, and we will discover it if we take these steps:

1. Admit it:  Saying 3 little words  (“I messed up”) can go a long way toward turning failure into success.  Don’t use excuses or blame.  Honestly face defeat.  Confess it to God if it’s sin; ask forgiveness if you’ve hurt someone; accept an alternate outcome, if your plans didn’t match up with God’s. (1 John 1:9)

2. Learn from it: Don’t waste the lesson.  Every bitter experience or disappointment can teach us something.  Review the steps that led to the outcome and see if changes need to be made.  It has been said that success builds character, but failure reveals it. (Job 42:3-4,6)

3. Trust God with it:  If we are confident in God’s love for us and His promise to work all things together for our good, we can let go of the past, move forward after failure and trust Him to work in our lives. (2 Cor 12:9, Psalm 37:23)

4. Try Again:  Never use failure as an excuse for not trying again.  “The only time you don’t want to fail is the last time you try.”  (Phil 3:13-14)