Growing from this Place Subject: Failure is not an option
In this week’s edition of Growing from this Place Bible Study, Pastor Jonathan McKnight delves into the idea of failure. He starts off by stressing the focal point of the study that in God, failure is not an option. From a questioning standpoint, he looks at concept of failure by asking us on how many times failure has affected your mindset through past situations.
How many times have you gone through things that didn’t go the way you would have wanted them to and you began to lose sight of trusting in your abilities (and often God’s) to be successful in new situations, feeling like you’ve failed and that your only option is to give up? Pastor McKnight explains that this is exactly what your adversary, or your enemy will try to get you to think and believe. He pauses to take a look at the term adversary is define:
Adversary – one’s opponent in a contest, conflict or dispute.
When thinking about this notion of having an adversary or antagonist to your ability to be successful, Pastor McKnight stresses, that your adversary is not always an outside entity of any sort, but that sometimes your adversary can come from within. He eludes to fact that in some cases, your mindset can be an enemy against what God is trying to do in your life. We often let what has happened in the past to dictate how things will be in our future, or in other words, our past tends to punish our future. In changing the narrative or the perspective of the adversary, Pastor McKnight expresses that adversary is necessary in discovering what type of faith you have in order to determine what God says about you.
God has called you into greatness and quite often, your greatness has to be tested. But in the midst of being test, Pastor McKnight suggests that you should paint a picture in your mind of success so that failure doesn’t become an option. You should not become complacent when you fail and based on past failures. At this point, being persistent and consistent in prayer becomes very important not only because of it being our communication with God, but because it help us to not focus on failing. You have to stay in communication or prayer with God in order to sustain the mindset of warrior and winner with the belief that you will survive and be successful even when it takes awhile for something you’re believing in God for to happen.
Pastor McKnight references this notion by taking a look at the book of Luke, Chapter 18, where it starts off by indicating that men shall always pray, and not faint, especially when faced with adversity. He invokes that God will allow seasons come into your life where you will be wronged. He allows things to happen to you so that He can avenge you. But it’s through staying in communication with God where we will find peace and acceptance of this concept. This idea is apparent when you look at the story that follows about the unjust judge that didn’t fear God, nor regarded man was constantly being troubled by a widow who wanted him to avenge her of her adversary. After a while, he eventually avenged her so that she wouldn’t continue to trouble him. Much like the unjust judge avenged her, God is even more capable to avenge us of adversary, even when that adversary is our own mindset. Just know that what He takes you through, trust and go through the process and always keep in mind that with God, failure is not an option.
Scripture Reference
Luke 18: 1-8