Fear Failure?

As believers, fear is something that we must guard against, except when it comes to a healthy fear of the Lord. There are many kinds of fear we must fight against, but one of the most vicious and destructive is the fear of failure. This aspect of fear usually goes hand in hand with fear of man. It's very easy in our lives to allow our focus to be on pleasing man, instead of pleasing God. If your goal is to please man, fear of failure will become a giant in your life. It means that everything we do will be done with an emphasis on satisfying and pleasing a person, which can easily get our focus off what God wants. If we make our priority pleasing the Lord, it will free us from living to please man. Proverbs 29:25 in the Message says, "The fear of human opinion disables; trusting in God protects you from that." Think about this for a minute, but what's your motive for saying what you say and doing what you do? Is it to please man? Or is it to obey the Bible? In our culture we can get so tangled up in human opinion and what we see, read or hear, that it becomes our priority, rather than living the Bible and desiring to please its author. So how do you get breakthrough in this area? Live to please the one who died on the cross for you, loving what He loves and hating what He hates. This means focusing more on what the Bible says rather than what man, TV or the internet says. If you believe everything you see, hear or read, you're airing on the side of foolishness and not wisdom. Choose to please the Lord today, and you won't be disappointed. If you do fail in something, make things right, and get back up on your feet, trusting the Lord completely :) Proverbs 24:16 brings such encouragement to us with this, "The godly may trip seven times, but they will get up again..."