Success vs. Failure

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Please hit play and then read this post.

Bossy, aren't I?

I continue to consider and dream about what God's plans might be for the future, and one nagging thought continues to bother me. What if I fail? What if I go out on faith and end up flat on my face? What if I? Hold on a second, just who is this about anyway? Not me, that's for sure! It's about Him, not about me. If I write to glorify Him and not a single soul reads it, that's not failure. If I'm never asked to speak publicly, but am willing to share my faith to even a few, that's a success!

God's definition of success and failure is different than our definition of success and failure. We want to succeed because it makes us feel good. We avoid failure because it feels bad. Success equals greater and failure equals less. God sees it much differently.

"What do you think? If a man owns a hundred sheep, and one of them wanders away, will he not leave the ninety-nine on the hills and go to look for the one that wandered off? And if he finds it, I tell you the truth, he is happier about that one sheep than about the ninety-nine that did not wander off. In the same way your Father in heaven is not willing that any of these little ones should be lost. Matthew 18:12-14 NIV

A human shepherd would probably march home with 99 sheep and look at it as a successful grazing trip. Sure, he lost one, but he brought home 99, because his focus is on his personal success. I'm so thankful that our Heavenly Father doesn't gauge success and failure in the same way we do.

Anything we do wholeheartedly for the Lord is a success, even if the results seem modest to our eyes, the trick is we need to make sure that our focus is clearly on Him and not on us!