Over the last few months I have had the privilege of overseeing our Sunday Youth ministry at Kings Church Hastings. Some of my highlights of the week are usually getting the opportunity to get deeper in the word and study what the Bible says. So to kick off I felt that God had put something among Fear in my heart, so naturally #Fearless came along. This series is coming to an end, so I thought I would upload my notes/talks on here and hopefully this will be a snowball of doing weekly posts once again. I have some super exciting things planned with The Awakening Sessions, Awakening and Fearless over the next few months and hopefully next few years. Lets see where the adventure will go.
One of the sessions we gave to our amazing young people was about Fear of Failure. We want our young people to know whether they do amazing or they don't do as well as they thought, that doesn't change their position in God. They are still sons and daughters, love by their heavenly father, day in, day out. No matter if it is in A* (or a 2 in the new GCSE system) or a U (9 in the new system...confusing right) they are still chosen, God still has a plan and nothing can separate them from his great love.
With these notes we are looking into the book of Micah.
Overview Of Micah:
The prophet condemns the rulers, priests, and prophets of Israel who exploit and mislead the people. It is because of their deeds that Jerusalem will be destroyed. The prophet Micah proclaims the deliverance of the people who will go from Jerusalem to Babylon and concludes with an exhortation for Jerusalem to destroy the nations who have gathered against her. The ideal ruler would come from Bethlehem to defend the nation, and the prophet proclaims the triumph of the remnant of Jacob and foresees a day when Yahweh will purge the nation of idolatry and reliance on military might. The prophet sets forth a powerful and concise summary of Yahweh's requirement for justice and loyalty and announces judgment upon those who have followed the ways of Omri and Ahab. The book closes with a prophetic liturgy comprising elements of a lament. Israel confesses its sin and is assured of deliverance through Yahweh's mighty acts.
Micah7:8
Do not gloat over me, my enemy! Though I have fallen, I will rise. Though I sit in darkness, the LORD will be my light.
Tattoos are permanents. Bruises are temporary. When it comes to failure, we need to understand that it is not a tattoo; it is a bruise, a one-off event rather than a label to define your life. The fact that we fail at times does not make us a failure.
It means we tried, and the key is to get up and have another go! We can only do that if we allow failure to teach us and grow us, rather than define us. This way, when we try, we win or we learn, but we never lose.
The Bible is full of stories of people who failed; it is also full of stories of many who overcame their failures. The biggest heroes in the Bible are people who failed time and time again, but who God continued to use just because they didn't give up trying. Micah 7:8 says “don’t gloat over me, my enemies, although I have fallen, I will rise”
There is so much hope in this verse. To be aware of a failure, yet being able to keep focused on the comeback is a beautiful thing! Winston Churchill said ‘Success is to keep failing without losing enthusiasm.
In life we will have some small, and some epic fails. Some we forget in a day; others we carry around for a lifetime. The question is: Do our failings make us stronger and wiser, or do they make us fearful to try again; fearful of taking a risk, or stepping out?
In some jobs, there is zero tolerance for failure. If you are pilot or a heart tolerance to fail to fail because lives depend on you. For this reason, they have had years of practice and training where they could fail.
Heart surgeons had practice bodies. Pilots had simulators and test flights. These were platforms where there was room for failure many times over that allowed them to grow and become skilled. When it comes to our walk with God, we are all works in progress. We are all on a journey, and failures along the way will happen.
Lets embrace them, learn from them and prevent them from holding us back from where God has called us to go. God has called us to go. God hasn’t called us to be perfect. He’s just called us to not give up.
0 comments:
Post a Comment