1 Easy Biblical Secret to Never Fail Again

Are you stressed that you will fail? Do you have anxiety that you aren’t good enough? Reading this title, you might think I’m about to share some sort of unbiblical and prosperity-gospel-like secret. But I promise you, this secret to never fail again is biblical. Read on and you’ll see what I mean.

Was Jesus the best at everything he put his hands to?

Could Jesus snowboard better than Shawn White on his first try? Could he sit down and quickly scratch out a novel that would put Tolkien to shame?

I’ve been toying with this question for a long time. If Jesus is God, then certainly he’d be far better than any normal human at any of these things, right? Yet, if Jesus was also human, wouldn’t he have to learn all these things like the rest of us? It’s an interesting discussion, but I think there’s an answer we can all agree upon.

Yes, Jesus, from his very first attempt, is far better than we could ever hope to be at everything.

This statement is true if we correctly understand what it means to be better or to succeed. For a whole year, I looked at this question with a worldly understanding of performance. Why is it that we consider the team who scores the most points to be the best?

We put our value on winning and claim that to be the indicator of which team was best. But which team do you think God considers the winner? The team who scored the most points or the team that demonstrated humility, compassion, and love to each other and to those around them?

Never Fail Again

In God’s eyes, anything that gives him the most glory is considered the best. Whether Jesus could swim faster than Michael Phelps or not, I have no clue. But Jesus will always swim better than Michael Phelps because he’s always perfectly focused on glorifying God through how he swims.

This means Jesus never failed at anything. It also means you’ll never fail again if you focus only on glorifying God.

I cannot tell you how much comfort this realization brought to my soul. For almost ten years, I’ve been so focused on becoming a more skilled writer.

I’ve often closed the cover of an amazing book and thought, I’ll never write a book this good. I’ve often felt demoralized looking at my own writing with this perspective.

1 Samuel 16:7 shows how much God desires devotion to him over skill. It reads: “But the Lord said to Samuel, ‘Do not consider his appearance or his height, for I have rejected him. The Lord does not look at the things people look at. People look at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.’”

The Comforting Reality

When I finally realized that God’s criteria of good writing are what brings him the most glory and what comes out of a heart devoted to him, everything changed. I’ll never fail again when I hold to this mentality.

I still slip back into old ways and try to be the best (as the world defines best). But now I can hold onto this truth to bring me comfort and confidence. If my focus is on bringing God glory, then I’m always writing at my best. Even if my writing isn’t the best, my primary job is to write for my heavenly Father.

Whether or not my books are ever published; whether or not I die leaving forty books behind me collecting dust rather than readers; I can know I was faithful with my God-given talent and passion. I can rest now. Even when I feel like my current project has a weak plot and characters, I can look up, smile, and keep writing as my form of praise.

The beauty of this truth is that it applies to everything.

No matter what it is you love doing, you’re at your best when your focus is on giving God glory. You don’t need to worry about whether or not others are better than you or let doubtful thoughts keep you from trying.

You never need to fear failure again.

Sure, maybe you won’t get the job, or she’ll say no when you ask her out. If your definition of success is to give God glory, then you’ll never fail again when your heart is focused on him.

Work with Excellence

This doesn’t mean that there’s no value in developing your skill or refining the project you’ve already created.

Colossians 3:23-24 says, “Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters, since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving.”

This assurance of never failing shouldn’t cause us to slack off. In fact, we should use this new-found freedom to develop our skills. When we find our value in God rather than in our abilities, we become much more teachable and can, therefore, improve our skills much quicker.

At any time, you may relax, shift your focus to God, and enjoy the fact that you’re pursuing this calling because you love God and want to glorify his name. At that same moment, remember God sees you and can’t help but smile because he’s so overjoyed with who you are.

I hope this tip brings you peace as you follow him and live wilder.

What do you think? Am I wrong in claiming we will never fail again when our focus is to glorify God and hold to this new definition of success or failure?

If you are having a hard time connecting with God, you may want to check out my last post Stop and Listen for God’s Calling in Your Life

If you have a hard time trusting God with your dreams, you may want to check out my post Five Reasons Why You Can Trust God With Your Dreams