Love Works, Good Works!

1 Cor.13:⁸ “Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away” [NIV]

The fourth thing that you and I must do to banish the fear of failure is to Redefine Failure. Failure should not be what the world has called it – you redefine it. Doing something that does not work is not failure. Failure is not doing that thing in the first place. Failure is not making an effort that became fruitless but actually not making the effort at all. Ecc.3:¹² “I realized that all we can do is be happy and do the best we can while we are alive” [GN, with emphasis]. As a wife, a father, a teacher, a manager, a leader – all you can do is to be happy and to do the best that you can. God does not require anything more from you.

Once you have done your best, leave the rest. I would rather attempt something great and fail than not attempt anything and succeed. If you do not attempt anything, you will not even succeed in life. One of my mantras is, “I would rather try and be told that it cannot be done than not try and be told that it could have been done if I had only tried”. I can live with the fact that I tried and it did not work. But I cannot live with the fact that it could have worked but I just did not try.

2 Tim.4:⁷ “I have done my best in the race, I have run the full distance, I have kept the faith.” [GN, with emphasis]. Does your Bible record that Paul came first? Coming first is not the focus; the focus is going the course. The question is did you finish and not did you come first. The question is did you do what you were told to do? And guess what? If you actually do what you are told to do, you will come in first because you are competing with yourself and not with anybody else. But if you do not obey, then you will have a problem on your hands.

Failure is giving up too soon. You and I have to keep on trying. 1 Cor. 13:⁸ “Love never fails.”  This Scripture is very powerful and I will tell you why. It means I cannot fail as long as I am doing it out of love. If a husband is carrying out his responsibilities out of love, love never fails. We have to do everything out of love and parenting out of love never fails. Stop worrying about failing as a parent, just focus on doing it out of love.

Prayer: Holy Spirit, please grow me in the fruit of love so that everything will flow from the abundance of love in my heart, in Jesus Name. Amen!