‘We get knocked down, but we get up again.’ 2 Corinthians 4:9 TLB
Failure can feel like a punch in the gut. And when it keeps happening it’s tempting just to give up. But you can’t; you must ‘get up again’. Failing doesn’t make you a failure, quitting does. A ship in a harbour is safe, but that’s not what a ship is built for.’ A failure-free life feels safe, but it fosters boredom, apathy and low self-esteem. Ever noticed that the devil never reminds you of what you’ve learned? No, he wants you to keep reliving the painful details. Learn the lesson, then forget the details! Victory requires building on what you’ve learned and moving on. Theologian Brooke Foss Westcott said, ‘Great occasions do not make heroes or cowards, they simply unveil them… Silently, as we wake or sleep, we grow strong or weak, and at last some crisis shows us what we have become.’
This article ran in The Wall Street Journal newspaper: ‘You’ve failed many times although you may not remember. You fell the first time you tried to walk. You almost drowned the first time you tried to swim. Did you hit the ball the first time you swung the bat? Heavy hitters, the ones who hit the most home runs, also strike out a lot. RH Macy failed seven times before his store in New York caught on. English novelist John Creasey got 753 rejection slips before publishing over 400 books.’
H. Jackson Brown gives us two rules for winning: Rule One: Take one more step. Rule Two: When you don’t think you can take one more step, refer to rule number one.
SoulFood: Exo 16–18, Matt 6:19–34, Ps 74:1–11, Pro 2:6
The Word for Today is authored by Bob and Debby Gass and published under licence from UCB International Copyright ©