Now folks, that’s a lot off your plate. Imagine what a relief it would be to just live your life in friendship with God, unaffected by worries and fears about the devil, unmoved by worries and fears about other people – what they might think, what they might say, what they might do.
Think about all you could accomplish if you were truly unafraid. I’m not saying you go out and take foolish risks. I’m saying fear holds us back. God tells us to go but we’re afraid to go. God tells us to stay put but we’re afraid to stay put. God gives us something to say but we’re afraid to say it. God gives us a talent or a gift that will bless and encourage and help other people, but we’re afraid we’ll make a mistake, or afraid we’ll look foolish, or afraid we might fail.
Let me go ahead and allay those fears right now. Let me share something with you that will set you free from fear of failure, fear of making mistakes. I’m still relatively young, but I’ve been at this for a long time. People say, “How can you know so much and be so young?” I’ll tell you why, it’s because I’ve made enough mistakes for three people twice my age. By the time I was twenty I had made enough mistakes for someone eighty. I have failed more times than I have succeeded. I have fallen down, gotten up, fallen down, gotten up, fallen down, gotten up, and sometimes I think God created me to be an example to others of what NOT to do. I’m only just beginning to experience some victories, some successes, some fruitfulness. I’ve had to learn it the hard way.
But here’s what I want to share with you, to set you free from fear of failure, fear of making mistakes, fear of stepping out, fear of stepping up. Here’s what God showed me: His plan, and His purpose for my life, is based on my making lots of mistakes. His plan accounts for the fact that I’m going to fail. He already has that factored into the equation. We don’t take God by surprise, or derail His purpose, by anything we do or fail to do. His purpose and His plan for your life is not dependent on you never making a mistake. Not only does He know that you will make mistakes, and you will fail, He makes His plans based on the fact that things are going to come along to try and mess up His plans.
Have you ever made plans to do something? Do you plan for things to go wrong, or do you plan for things to go right? Most people come up with a plan and the plan assumes everything is going to go the way it should. But what happens? Something always goes wrong, and then the plan collapses.
For me it happens every Saturday. My wife gives me a little home repair project, and I think it’s going to be pretty simple, just need a hammer and some nails and this and that. So I plan to take five minutes to do this simple repair. Then I get five minutes into the project and realize it’s worse than I thought, I need a watchamacallit and a thingamajig and I don’t have what I need, so now I have to make a trip to the store. They don’t have what I need so I have to go somewhere else. Then I come home and the part I thought I needed doesn’t fit, I need something larger or something smaller, and now I have to go back to the store again. What should have been a five minute project becomes a five hour ordeal.
Now, do you think God is like that? Do you think He is so foolish as to have one plan that relies upon you and me doing everything perfectly, never making a mistake? Do you think you can make a mistake or fail so miserably that you can outsmart God and thwart His plan for your life?
Certainly we can delay His purpose, and we can bring a lot of unnecessary suffering on ourselves by being willfully disobedient, but if our heart is right and we’re doing the best we know how to do then God is able to work everything out for His glory, even our mistakes, even our failures, EVEN OUR SINS. I’m not saying go out and sin, because there are consequences for sin. I’m talking about your past right now. Don’t worry that your past disqualifies you, because it doesn’t. You can’t go back and undo these past mistakes, past failures, past sins. I’m saying don’t let fear about your past keep you from loving God now, living life now.
Don’t worry about being perfect in the future, because God’s purpose for your life is based on you being imperfect. God wants to show the world how He can take anything and bring good out of it, how He can take imperfect people who make mistakes and still do something good with their lives.
That is going to be the history of mankind, we’re all going to be amazed one day when we look back and see how God worked all things together for good, brought light out of darkness, and used evil for good.
The preceeding article is based on an audio series titled “Overcoming Fear and Worry: Spiritual Principles for Victorious Living.”
Dear Chip, our brother,
I was driving today communing with God. I said to Him, “my bad”, again. He said to me the exact words you just said. He said, “get back up”, and nothing that I have done has surprised HIM”. I then get home and open my mail and there is your letter Chip, “Freedom to Fail”. I feel like I should be disqualified from this race most of these days. However, I remember things that HE has spoken to my heart that have yet to come to pass. I will not, I dare not, quit! Thank-you for validation!
Sheryl Ask (Wayne Ask)
Re: Do you think He is so foolish as to have one plan that relies upon you and me doing everything perfectly, never making a mistake? Do you think you can make a mistake or fail so miserably that you can outsmart God and thwart His plan for your life?
Good points, I hadn’t thought of it that way.
This word is right on time. God is such an awesome God and I’m thankful for His grace and mercy.
Chip,
Great words. I had someone tell me once Father is not only not upset with us in our journey, He is enjoying the progress we are making! After all it is He that is at work in us to will and to do of His good pleasure. (Notice those last three two words.)
The timing of this encouragement was right on target with what had/has been in my heart for a few days now. No coincidence.
Dear Chip,
What a great and wonderful reminder about our Father’s love toward us. Thank you for this encouragement.
Hi Chip.
I have been meditating on the scripture 1 John 4:18 and I keep getting stuck on the part where it says “Love drives out all fear, if you are fearful you have not been perfected in love”….
I have to be my worst critic,I am often not satisfied with what i do i assume its not enough. Its not perfect enough or its not how things were suppose to go down.
Like when i fast i tend to make mistakes and i get so upset with myself that i end up not fasting anymore because of the guilt that comes with making mistakes during my fast. I often decide i am not disciplined enough or i lack self-control yet my heart honestly desires to seek God and be in His presence through my fasting…
I am currently on a pursuit to knowing God beyond what i think right now because i know He has more to offer than what my silly assumptions decide.
Your article gave me a great start.
Thank You