FAILURE AND SUCCESS!

 

Wednesday, June 1, 2022

 

FAILURE AND SUCCESS!

 

Luke 22:31-32

31 And the Lord said, Simon, Simon, behold, Satan hath desired to have you, that he may sift you as wheat:

32 But I have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not: and when thou art converted, strengthen thy brethren.

 

Josh 1:8

8 This book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth; but thou shalt meditate therein day and night, that thou mayest observe to do according to all that is written therein: for then thou shalt make thy way prosperous, and then thou shalt have good success.

 

Only one time in our English Bible we find the word “success.” The word “fail” on the other hand, perhaps because our language has changed so much through the years, is found many times. However, “fail” often refers to supplies that have been depleted. One such example is the following verse.

 

1 Kings 17:13-14

13 And Elijah said unto her, Fear not; go and do as thou hast said: but make me thereof a little cake first, and bring it unto me, and after make for thee and for thy son.

14 For thus saith the LORD God of Israel, The barrel of meal shall not waste, neither shall the cruse of oil fail, until the day that the LORD sendeth rain upon the earth.

 

Failures take on a life of their own because the brain remembers incomplete tasks or failures longer than any success or completed activity. It's technically referred to as the "Zeigarnik effect." The effect was first observed by Russian psychologist Bluma Zeigarnik, who noticed that waiters in a café could recall the orders they had not yet delivered better than those they had distributed.

 

 When a project or a thought is completed, the brain places it in a special memory. The brain no longer gives the project priority or active working status, and bits and pieces of the achieved situation begin to decay. Failures have no closure. The brain continues to spin the memory, trying to come up with ways to fix the mess and move it from active to inactive status.

 

David, in Psalm 51 said, “My sin is ever before me.” His mind was constantly working at finding a solution to a mess he had created by a series of wrong decisions. We do the same. Paul may not have been a psychologist, but he instinctively knew that the key to peace of mind was a cultured forgetfulness. Some things, like the stoning of Stephen must have lingered with him till death.

 

Phil 3:13-14

13 Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before,

14 I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.

 

How we need to focus on what Jesus said to Peter, “I have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not.”

 

Dear Lord, I may fail at many of life’s ventures, but please do not allow my faith to fail. AMEN