It’s 5AM. The lamp on my desk is a droplet of light in a pool of darkness. Moonlight ghosts the hills and treetops outside my window. I’m thinking about a non-profit project that God gave me to do. I’m so very sure he gave it to me, yet after a year of work the non-profit is still a non-project. Discouragement creeps in, as cold and life-draining as the mist piling against my door.
“Lord, I need some encouragement.” I ran a section of code again, hoping for better results than yesterday. The results were worse.
But I felt better. I suddenly saw so clearly that discouragement is the devil’s hangup, not mine and certainly not God’s.
Failure belongs ONLY to the devil. God NEVER fails.
God’s plans always succeed. What he decrees will always happen. When I’m doing God’s things with God, I can’t fail either* Even if I seem to fail, God ultimately brings success out of it.** Since perfect love casts out fear, and God is perfect love, as Dr. Dallas Willard says, I only fear to the extent I push God out of my situation.
My success or failure has everything to do with who I’m working for.
How I feel has everything to do with who I listen to.
If you’re feeling discouraged, I pray God gives you a glimpse of the triumph in store (like Elisha seeing the armies of fire 2 Kings 6:17-20).
* What does, ”God’s things with God,” look like in practical life?
https://www.danieltweddell.com/we-see-giants/
https://www.danieltweddell.com/how-to-get-what-you-want/
** Some thoughts on how God turns failure and trouble into success.
https://www.danieltweddell.com/designer-problems/
https://www.danieltweddell.com/completely-screwed-in-every-way/
- Numbers 23:19 – “God is not human, that he should lie, not a human being, that he should change his mind. Does he speak and then not act? Does he promise and not fulfill?”
- Proverbs 19:21 – “Many are the plans in a person’s heart, but it is the Lord’s purpose that prevails.”
- Isaiah 55:11 – “So is my word that goes out from my mouth: It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.”
- Jeremiah 32:27 – “I am the Lord, the God of all mankind. Is anything too hard for me?”
- Matthew 19:26 – “Jesus looked at them and said, ‘With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.’”
- 1 Samuel 2:6-7 – “The Lord brings death and makes alive; he brings down to the grave and raises up. The Lord sends poverty and wealth; he humbles and he exalts.”
- Job 42:2 – “I know that you can do all things; no purpose of yours can be thwarted.”
- Isaiah 46:10 – “I make known the end from the beginning, from ancient times, what is still to come. I say, ‘My purpose will stand, and I will do all that I please.’”
Ephesians 1:11 – “In him we were also chosen, having been predestined according to the plan of him who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of his will.”