One thing that I have always struggled with was a fear of failure. It’s why I’ve never tried out for American Idol or the Voice, because of the “what if I don’t make it” line of thinking. In my earlier post about Creatives, the reason that I don’t share my ideas often is because I worry about whether people will look at me differently if they think my idea is stupid. Fear of failure. It can be paralyzing! I had a fear of being a failure as a teacher before finally jumping into the waters, after some prodding from God. Well, more like a big shove from God.

I say all of this, because I want to share something with you from Pastor Mark Batterson that I think it absolutely relevant for today and all times. He writes,

“Faith is the process of unlearning those fears. ‘Perfect love casts out all fear.’ The opposite of love is not hate. The opposite of love is fear. True love leads to fearlessness. It’s the love of God that sets us free from the spirit of fear. When you know that God loves you no matter what, you’re not afraid to fail, because you know that God will be right there to pick you up if you fall down. (from Chase the Lion)”

This is worth chewing on today. The freedom and total acceptance of God’s love casts out fear of failure, because He will love us no less if we fail, nor will He love us anymore if we succeed. His love is constant, and evident in every area of our lives, should we choose to accept it.

We fight fear with love. Should we take the challenge of loving people the way God loves us, we undertake that challenge knowing that people will fail us. Our love can’t change, because that love is what can redeem people, not just in our eyes, but in the eyes of others. By that same token, in our (my) personal life, the fear of failure can NOT outweigh the thrill of following the dreams that God has placed in our hearts. We (I) can’t be so concerned with being accepted in the eyes of men that I hold back what God has placed in my head.

Quite personally, the question is “Justin, who are you following? Who are you aiming to please?”

How liberating is that?

Perfect love(God) casts out all fear.

Cool!

Hmm…many people don’t come to Christ because they are afraid of failing Him because of sin and addictions, etc. What if we, Christians, could show them the power of failure? That it leads us closer to Him? That we grow from it. How powerful is that? We are free to fail, because God loves us enough to encourage us to fly!

Boom!