Encouragement to Proceed

Advice from the Past

— Br. Kenneth Rawson

The past year, month, or week might have been a partial failure — even a complete failure — but remember, tomorrow is the first day of the rest of your new creature life. If there is sorrow or pain in your heart, don’t suppress it. Do your grieving now. Face, accept, and resolve your pain; get up even if you have to drag yourself up, and go on. To do this effectively, there are several valuable qualities you need to have.

Give God a Chance

If you feel like you have failed or believe you have done wrong, ask God to forgive you — and be sure to forgive yourself. Then turn your failure into a stepping stone in your development as a new creature. Use your failure as David did to gain insights into your fallen human nature so that you will be able to understand and help others now, and in the Kingdom. (See Psalm 51, “A Psalm of David, when Nathan the prophet came unto him.”)

Have the Right Attitude

Attitude is what makes the difference between a painful experience becoming a failure or a success. You can let the failure leave you timid and afraid to step out again for fear of being hurt, or you can determine that your failure will be your teacher.

You can allow your failures to hurt you, or help you. True, you need mountaintop experiences from time to time to give you encouragement. But you do not grow through these. It is in the valley of your disappointments and through your failures that you are given the opportunity to take stock of your new creature life and move toward a greater level of growth and maturity.

Remember that Failure is an Event, Not a Person

Because you may have failed in your marriage or job, in another relationship, or other situation in the narrow way, does not mean that you are a failure as a person. Not at all. Realize that the only real failure is not to try, or not to keep on trying, or not to get up one more time. The important thing is to learn from your past, to use it as an opportunity to grow, and to move ahead. Remember, a just man falls seven times, but rises up again (Proverbs 24:16).

When a Bone is Broken and Heals, that Healed Break Becomes the Strongest Part of the Bone.

The same is true of your broken or failed experience — where you have been hurt, have fallen and failed, or are afraid. When you bring these to God for His healing, His strength is made perfect in your weakness (2 Corinthians 12:9).