Skip to main content

Your ‘failure’ equates to God’s success

Psalms 145:14 

“The Lord upholds all who fall and lifts up all who are bowed down” 

Recently I’ve been having a few conversations with people on some of their dreams and aspirations in life. Some vary but most of them consist of some form of material position: the ability to buy a house, and have a fancy car, or never have to worry about bills. These are all things I’m sure all of us want, but what happens if we don’t achieve them? Are we less of a person if these things are out of reach? Are we...failures? 

Failure is a concept that has been very prominent in my life. If you have grown up in a household that is similar to mine, you may have had expectations placed on you. This may be by your parents, maybe an aunt or an uncle, or even yourself. I’m sure all of us want a certain lifestyle for ourselves, and with that comes a standard we hold ourselves to, which isn’t inherently bad, but with the absence of God it can overwhelm us when those said standards aren’t fulfilled. If we base our whole lives on fulfilling worldly pursuits, we will only get worldly rewards: which we know are temporary and short-lasted because it’s not concerned with God.  

Looking more closely at the verse, we see that when we fall, God lifts us up. However, we see this treatment being quite exclusive. It’s only those “who are bowed down” to Him, that He lifts: it takes submission and surrendering. In practicality, you can only be lifted up by someone if you are in close proximity to them. The same applies with God. If we set our standards and expectations through Him, not only does failure not exist, but it also means that when we do fall, He will be right there to pick us up.  

We live lives trying too hard to avoid something that isn’t even real. All failure consists of is not achieving the expectation we have placed in our minds: but whose expectations should our lives be constructed by: us or the all-knowing God? 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Equipping ourselves

Ephesians 6:13   “ Therefore, put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand”   Recently I had a conversation with one of my friends. Before our interaction, I didn’t set any expectation other than simply just seeing how they were doing. To my surprise, my friend asked me a question: and what was just a simple question, felt like an opportunity for me to express my faith. If I had not already had a foundation of God’s word, it would have been a missed opportunity. We are all presented with opportunities, some we may not be aware of, others we may not feel comftable in expressing, but all of them we need to be equipped for.    Our faith and belief are counter-cultural: it doesn’t agree with the views of today and goes against the perspectives and viewpoints of the society we live in.  As long as you claim to be a Christian, there will be people that dis...
Post a Comment
Read more

God is proud of you

Mark 1:11 “And a voice came from heaven: “You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased” A couple months ago, I had a friend say to me “God is proud of you” and I nearly broke down in tears. How could five words impact me so much? Never hearing or honestly believing it, my perspective changed on a lot of things. We all are our worst critic, and with that comes being very hard on ourselves. Living lives aiming to be perfect, yet sometimes we miss how detrimental that can be: associating our value in our pursuit. I think at times we treat God as a form of teacher or boss: in the sense that if we provide something, whether it’s a high grade or a substantial amount of work, we are deserving of validation. In our lives, this may look like praying a certain number of times, maybe it’s fasting for a couple more hours, or even reading an extra chapter of the bible. Whatever it is, I think we are all guilty of thinking that if we do more, that somehow God’s love for us will be cor...
Post a Comment
Read more

Enduring the Journey

James 1:4   “Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything”   Recently I had someone tell me that I take too many shortcuts. Because of pride, it’s always uncomfortable for me to accept criticism, especially related to something I wasn’t even aware of. This comment put me in a state of reflection: it made me realise that throughout this year, I’ve been trying to take too many shortcuts. Cutting corners, looking for the easier way out, they’re all mental movements to escape the journey that God was putting me through. In a culture of instant dopamine, we’ve adopted the mindset that everything should be granted to us immediately , however I think God calls us to wait a little longer, because in our wait He may be trying to teach us something much more valuable.   Closely reading the verse , we see that “perseverance” is a work. Like with anything work related, there is a start point and end point. Though perseverance is...
1 comment
Read more