Weekly Devotional #002
Remaining Faithful In Our Failure
What do you do when you’ve been faithful to God in a particular area, but continue to see no fruit? Do you conclude that God is absent? Do you believe He doesn’t care? Do you suspect Him of playing a cruel trick on you?
When you’re in the depths of the disappointment of failure, these questions and more definitely arise. The agony of {perceived} repetitive defeat can be crushing to the faithful Believer. However, these feelings serve as sobering reminders of the truth found in scripture:
“I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God has been making it grow.” - 1 Corinthians 3:6
The true disappointment of failure resides in what that failure represents - a lack of progress (or growth) in a particular area. Whether it’s the athlete who didn’t beat their personal best, or the real estate agent who didn’t meet their quarterly sales goals, failure reminds us of the growth that didn’t happen.
But here’s the painful, yet comforting reality - growth (progress) is NEVER achieved through the will of the Believer; it is only achieved through the sovereign will of God.
Yeah, sure - you might’ve worked hard and landed that job, but don’t get it twisted - the Lord was behind that 1000% of the way. And you may have had a great marketing strategy, but you better believe the Lord was behind all those sales!
So where does failure play into this reality? How can we remain faithful in the midst of it? Simple - we can start by submitting our hearts to the Lord’s sovereignty. Understanding that our faithful failure is anything but failure; we’ve been called to water and plant - the growing part is above our pay grade. Let that truth humble us.
Secondly, we can begin to ask God to make our hearts glad with our obedience, rather than the benefit our obedience may bring; that He’d help us be satisfied with being good stewards of His instructions rather than reward that comes from following them.
This is hard - this type of response to failure is reserved for mature Believers: the ones who have a greater revelation of their spiritual bankruptcy before an infinitely wealthy Savior. As I type this, I’m wondering how the heck I’m going to live this out.
Lord, would you make us mature Believers? Would you make us satisfied with obeying you alone? And, if this is the true desire of our heart, would you make your voice as clear as day to us in your Word? Thank you in advance, Lord. In Jesus’ name, Amen!
Stay faithful, family. Even in the failure…
Love y’all,
Sheim
IV His Glory Clothing