The Upside of Adversity, Chapter 13

“Confronting the Fear of Failure” is the title of Chapter 13 in The Upside of Adversity. Fear is such a crippling thing, and at various times in my life, it has been mentally and emotionally paralyzing. This was a good chapter for me, and here are some bits and pieces for you that were meaningful to me.

“Failure hurts. It undermines your self-esteem as few other experiences can. But failure isn’t the final word on your life. It’s just one of the raw ingredients God uses to manufacture success. Everybody fails. It’s part of the process where God uses broken things and broken people to accomplish His plans.” 

If you hope to succeed, learn everything you can from your failures.

“Failure is usually a far better teacher than success—if we are willing to learn the lessons. God sees it as preparation for success. We need to start looking at failure from God’s perspective. he is daily giving us a fresh revelation of His purpose for our lives. Are we listening? He wants us to live with a sense of excitement and enthusiasm and a willingness to dare great things in His name. He wants to transform the desert wastelands of our past into a lush green Eden flowing with streams of live-giving water.”

“Fear is the enemy of faith. Fear is bondage. Satan wants us to live in bondage to the past, bugt God wants us to live in the freedom of His love and power. This is a spiritual battle, and it can only be won with spiritual weapons. We must replace our fear with the peace that passes understanding. Fear is a natural response to obstacles, adversity and failure, but peace is the supernatural response that God gives us by His grace.”

“No matter how we have failed in the past, the God of peace is leading us to success. The peace of God is our ultimate weapon against fear.”