Dear Ones,
Hope you are keeping warm on these cold days. Today I have exercise class, Craft class and later Bible Study.
Devotions from Judy’s heart
No one likes to fail and sometimes it can be very humiliating when our failure is obvious to people around us. Failure can cause our hearts to fear, block our vision and steal our hope. I read what author Sandie Freed had to say when we struggle with failure and even the fear of failure that may block us from trying again. Our fears can seem like giants and causes our faith to start shrinking and it is important that we run to the Lord and not from Him. It makes me think of a friend who displayed wooden figures of 2 men of faith, Joshua and Caleb, carrying a huge brunch of grapes on a strong branch. They went with 8 other spies to look over the land that God would give their people. Joshua and Caleb came back with a good report for they saw the people in the land as grasshoppers and later were able to enter the Promised land. The rest of the spies gave a bad report for they saw the people as giants and feared to go into the land and were never able to enter.

Maybe we are battling fear of failure and find we lack faith because of the giants in our lives. God wants us to call on Him and He has promised to hear our prayers and answer. He says in Jer. 29:11-14 that He has a wonderful plan for our future, and we are to pray and call on Him and He will answer. He will restore us and give us hope! When we focus on our past failures, we lack faith and may give excuses as to why we can’t do whatever it is God is asking of us. We have the example of Moses who when God called him to lead the people out of slavery, he said he wasn’t qualified for he was slow of speech, the people wouldn’t believe him, he wasn’t good enough etc. and yet God used Him mightily.

When God calls us to do something for Him that seems beyond our capabilities, we are not to speak negatively but to fight fear of failure with faith and believe His Word. The Lord promises to fight for us and it says in Psalm 73:26, ”My flesh and my heart may fail but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.” We may be weak, but He is strong. King David, Peter, Paul and others failed in many ways but went on to do great things for God. Like Freed said, failures of the past can cause delays, but it is not defeat if we try again, only a detour!

Challenge for today: Let us let go of past failures and ask for faith and trust to do whatever He asks of us.
Blessings on your day and prayers and love, Judy