4 godly ways to overcome failure in life
How do you overcome failure in life? How do you move past your fear of failure and live a resilient life?
As believers growing in grace, we are going to encounter some failures in life
But because of Jesus we can overcome every kind of failure in life and live out God's best for us. Through grace we can rise up and try again, knowing our recovery is essential to living an overcomer's life.
I can’t remember the first time I failed, but I know its happened a couple of times, enough to make me feel rejected.
But the good thing is I didn’t let those mistakes deter me from the goal.
For a righteous man may FALL seven times And rise again, But the wicked shall fall by calamity.
Proverbs 24:16
I remember a situation where I’d felt God had led me. I wrote on that here.
And so when He asked me to wait and put everything going on in my life on hold, I was too scared to let go at a point.
I battled with what people would think of me.
But after a while, I took a bold step and put an end to everything.
I faced my fear, accepted my failure and moved on with God.
Yes people might have perceived me as a failure, but right now I’m only concerned about what God would have me do at each moment of my life.
The next time God brought the bible study idea, I made sure I waited, ran it through one of my pastors, prayed and waited once again to get a hundred percent go-ahead within.
And then I launched.
It’s been a beautiful bible group experience so far.
Not perfect, but it’s steady and I’m glad for the new beginning.
God has been using it to teach me somethings about myself too.
So how do you overcome your failures and grow past your mistakes?
How do you get strength to live out God's plan for you?
How do you move past the fear of failure?
To overcome failure in life, you must be willing to admit your failure
Failure feels shameful, but don't be afraid to admit it.
I had to accept I’d failed. This was my first step to overcoming my failures.
There’s a way pride can make us live in denial or refuse to forgive ourselves.
It could have been a relationship or a career or God’s voice you even missed.
You know what? You’re human! And you will make mistakes.
You will miss it a couple of times. It’s proof that you’ve got something going on in your life.
But you can learn from your mistakes.
Failure is evidence that you’re moving forward and you’re eager to try instead of cowering in fear.
For a long time I found it hard to forgive myself.
I held on to my past mistakes and kept shaming myself and feeling bad about my choices.
Until the Holy-Spirit had to help me accept my shortcomings, dust myself from the ground and go back again.
It’s part of the process. We become successful when we use it as a stepping stone, and not something to deter us from purpose.
Be Persistent
I remember when God told me I would be an online ESL teacher four months after I resigned from my job as a Pharmacist.
I felt so elated I didn’t even think about the challenges I would encounter along the way.
How hard can this be? I thought to myself.
The number of rejections I got made me doubt my competency after a few weeks of applying.
I started to wonder if God had really told me or it was something my soul had conjured from somewhere.
I didn’t get any contrary response in my spirit about the ESL job but I was tired of waiting.
God was taking care of me, but I wanted extra cash.
So I left what God told me and started searching for other jobs.
When I got tired of going for interviews and applying, I went back to God to ask about the ESL teaching job.
It was in His presence I got another assurance/confirmation within my spirit that the ESL was/is His will.
But how? Where? When? I was plagued by so many thoughts.
But I told myself I would go for it.
Besides it was my only choice.
God had closed all other doors and was leaving me with his only option.
So I tried again.
I failed the demo interview first time and was told I needed to be familiar with the teaching lingua.
This involved performing lots of (TPR) physical reaction for the kids since they don’t speak English.
The second time was a mixture of positive and negative feedback.
On the third try, I got in! Whoot!
I learned something about God also.
Never let failure stop your pursuit of God or His will.
Be persistent. You failed the first time? The goal is to learn from your mistakes, not mourn about it.
Be ready to do lots of research and embrace feedback
This is evidence you’re willing to grow.
You failed the first time? Take time to reflect. What went wrong? Was something missing? How can you do better next time?
Work on your feedback and use it as an advantage.
When I got God's leading that I would teach online, I did my research on the teaching process and realized I would have to get a teaching certificate to stay ahead of the competitive market.
I did not have a lot of teaching experience but I focused my effort on the degree that could get me through the door (application process).
When that didn’t suffice on my first try, I watched lots of Youtube videos for the positive and negative outcomes.
I maximized my voluntary teaching experience in my NYSC year and every detail I could use to my advantage about my Community Development experience years ago.
(Thank God for the wisdom in this. God is so wise He sees the end from the beginning! How would I have known that the voluntary experience would be relevant in future? At the time, I had just volunteered to teach, although I was working as an NYSC Pharmacist at a Federal Hospital.)
Please allow God design your life! He sees and knows all.
I read blogs and checked out resources that could help me know how it’s done.
My mistake was that I'd assumed teaching was easy because I was told I’d be doing it in the comfort of my home.
Teaching online is hard work! Especially to non-native speakers.
Children have short-attention span. And I had to keep getting creative to keep the conversation going.
Learn to wait on God
God’s will has a way and a time and he will see to it Himself, at the right time.
God may have shown you what to do.
Pray about it too.
Don’t fret because everyone seems to be going ahead.
For a child of God, my destiny is different so I cannot afford to compare and allow pressure mess up things for me.
I learned this the hard way. God had told me about the ESL job 4 months ago. But I felt it was going to be immediate till I realized there’s a time and season for everything!
As far as it wasn’t time, I kept getting rejected.
If only I’d learned to be patient and wait on Him, I would have saved myself from some of my failures.
But I’m glad I’ve learned to wait and still learning.
It’s so important.
Failure is a stepping stone to success.
To overcome failure in life, you must be willing to learn from your past mistakes
It’s one of those processes we must be willing to go through and we would encounter some along the way.
Question is, what are you going to do about it?
Stand your ground or fall back and quit?
Bloom with Love. Xx