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Fearless

I love this quote from Pete Coggan about failure: 

“You think you exist, but you don’t. Millions of people believe in you, even get scared of your arrival. The idea of you has stunted some of the most ingenious and creative adventures this world has never seen. Give me the ‘pursuit in persistence’, the beauty in trying and reaching, learning and speaking. The wonder in feedback and critique to reshape and grow deep.” 

I agree with him that failure doesn’t exist. The world has created this very scary monster called ‘failure’, that we think of as something that could jump out on us anytime. But I think it’s really only a matter of how we view it. There are a myriad of ways we can condemn ourselves to failure in what we do because we’ve written our own version of what success is. 

We’ve mentioned before that in the Kingdom of God, principles usually go contrary  to those of the world, and that if we’re not content with an audience of One, then we’re not ready for an audience at all. So often we consider ourselves to have failed because we have measured ourselves against a worldly success monitor, rather than asking the simple question “Was it pleasing to His heart?”. If the answer to that question is a ‘yes’, then we should be confident in our success.  

Engaging with a spirit of failure can lead us to be shy and timid in our decision making. But failure is just a cheap, dressed up, counterfeit version of fear. It doesn’t exist, and more to the point, ‘God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power, love and self-discipline.’ Show me a person in history who has operated in power, love and self-discipline, and has failed - I doubt there is one. When we operate in God’s spirit, failure and fear disappear. 

Sometimes the threat of ‘worldly’ failure can give us a healthy persistence, but it shouldn’t define who we are or be a label we ever add to anything we do. We should always be ready and willing to accept feedback and criticism, but we must maintain confidence in the call of God, not letting the fear of what we see shake the faith in what we’ve heard. 

Flipping this understanding of success and failure on its head should eradicate the fear of failure that so many of us live under. Once we understand that our affirmation comes from blessing His heart and turning every act into worship, there is no such thing as failure. 

Take time today to identity the areas of your life where you may be worried about failure. Turn your fears into courage, and ask the Sprit of God to give you power, love and self-discipline in this area. A phrase I find myself saying to encourage myself is that “I will not allow the fear of what I see, shake the faith in what I’ve heard”. 

Since we’ve established that failure doesn’t exist, we know we don’t need to fear it. We may get knocked down or fall, but we have to learn that this isn’t a bad thing! We will learn a new tactic or a new strategy with every knock and fall, and become stronger because of it. Our scars become the map of our testimony, never to be despised or regretted, but rather to be celebrated because they represent wisdom gained, and lessons learned.

Like we said previously, we cannot conquer new ground if we do not walk on it. We cannot take new ground by sitting on the sidelines, watching others advance. We must be on the front lines, taking the steps ourselves. That involves MOVING! It involves stepping out, being brave and finding the fierceness we have inside..  

One thing we might associate the with the word ‘fierce’ is a Lion - and that would be absolutely right! Lions can be fierce, and yet God, who we know is gentle, loving and kind, calls Himself ‘The Lion of the tribe of Judah’. Fierce doesn’t need to mean destructive or aggressive. I believe that being fierce means being tenacious, standing our ground, no matter how much the world may tell us that what we’re doing doesn’t make sense. Read the verse from today - this isn’t a gentle lullaby, this is a call to action! It’s about getting up and adorning ourselves with strength! 

Sometimes we pray for God to do these things for us, but often the answer lies in us making a decision for ourselves. In today’s verse, God is requiring Jerusalem to do these things for herself! “Put on your strength!”; “loosen yourself from the bonds around your neck!”; “Shake yourself from the dust and RISE UP!” There is a clear call to action that results in a fierce, fearless, tenacious stance. 

Today is about resolving to move forward. We are all in a battle, and if we don’t move forwards we will end up regressing. It may not take any physical steps; it may just be a mental shift, or a spiritual acknowledgement. It may be a major change or a new chapter, but whatever it is, resolve to lower your chin, dig your heels in, and take that ground. You’ve got this! Find your fierce!