SUCCESS FROM FAILURE

Have you thanked Him?
Have you praised Him?
Have you made it your priority to agree and cooperate with Him today?
Have you taken that deep breath and listened for what He has for you today?
1 Timothy 2:1 (MSG)
1-3The first thing I want you to do is pray. Pray every way you know how,

There is a book that has been instrumental in my recovery. It is called “Approval Addiction”. It is a best seller from Joyce Meyer. And recently she pared the book down into a little devotional that I have handy for “refreshing and referral”. In the little devotional is this story. And while Wikipedia and others have categorized it as “lore” to some degree, it is still a wonderful and encouraging story about the role of failure in success!

Charles Darrow set a goal when he was in his twenties; he determined that he was going to be a millionaire. This isn't all that unusual today; but back then, it was extremely unusual. Charles lived during the Roaring Twenties, a time when a million dollars was an enormous sum. He married a woman named Esther, promising her that one day they would be millionaires. Then tragedy struck in 1929 - the Great Depression. Both Charles and Esther lost their jobs. They mortgaged their house, gave up their car, and used all their life savings. Charles was absolutely crushed. He sat around the house depressed until one day he told his wife she could leave him if she wanted to. "After all," he said, "it's clear that we're never going to reach our goal." Esther wasn't about to leave. She told Charles they were going to reach their goal, but they would need to do something every day to keep their dream alive.

What she was trying to tell Charles was this: Don't let your dreams die just because you made a few mistakes in the past. Don't give up just because you tried something a few times and it didn't seem to work. God wants you to press on past mistakes. The devil wants you to give up. Progress requires paying a price, and sometimes the price you pay for progress is just to "keep on keeping on" and saying: "I'm not going to quit until I have some kind of victory." Don't be the kind of person whose way of dealing with everything hard is: "I quit!" Esther Darrow told her husband, "Keep your dream alive." Charles responded, "It's dead. We failed. Nothing's going to work." But she wouldn't listen to that kind of talk; she refused to believe it. She suggested that every night they take some time to discuss what they would do toward reaching their dream. They began doing this night after night, and soon Charles came up with an idea of creating play money. His idea was something quite appealing since money was so scarce in those days. Since they were both out of work, he and Esther had lots of time, and now they had lots of easy money to play with. So they pretended to buy things like houses, property, hotels...You guessed it. It was the beginning of a game you probably have in your closest right now, it's called Monopoly.

You see, God can take the “failures” of life and inexplicably make a success out of them! And the message today is God wants to do the same type of thing through each of us. He is "no respecter of persons"
Acts 10:34
…understand now that God does not consider some people to be better than others.

Simply put God doesn’t offer breakthrough and success for a limited few. NO!
God's principles and providence are available to all! So when failure “comes calling”, defeat it with FAITH! Jesus Himself said,
Mark 9:23
“Anything is possible if you have faith.”

I ask:
Has this week been a struggle? You depressed? Beat down? Knocked sideways? Unsure?
Stay positive, keep on believing, and refuse to give up, God will lift you up!

Psalm 3:3
…thou, O Lord, art a shield for me; my glory, and the lifter up of mine head.
Remember you are not a failure just because you have failed. God sees your worth no matter what and success and the impossible are RIGHT around the corner!
Jeremiah 1:5
Before I made you in your mother’s womb, I knew you. Before you were born, I chose you for a special work.

Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts. - Winston Churchill
Have faith!

Have a blessed WEEKEND!
I love you all
Freedom Church