I’ve Failed Too Many Times

What is holding most people back from being all they can be in their relationship with God? Religion? Tradition? Faulty teaching? Lack of faith? Past failures?

I believe not seeing ourselves as God sees us may be the predominant reason people fail to achieve all God has for them–and most are unaware of the problem. What about you? Could this be an issue in your life? Let’s look at it.

One of the reasons we fail to see ourselves as God sees us is that our pasts hold us back. We see what we have done or failed to do and think, “How could God ever want someone like me to do something significant for Him?” Perhaps you have said, “I have failed too many times.”

The bottom line is that we do not believe in ourselves.

You have been told how I used to live when I was devoted to the Jewish religion, how I persecuted without mercy the church of God and did my best to destroy it. I was ahead of most other Jews of my age in my practice of the Jewish religion, and was much more devoted to the traditions of our ancestors. But God in his grace chose me even before I was born, and called me to serve him. And when he decided to reveal his Son to me, so that I might preach the Good News about him to the Gentiles, I did not go to anyone for advice, (Gal 1:13-16 GNB)

In today’s Scripture passage, Paul speaks of his past. He knew exactly what he had done. But then, he says something remarkable: “But God in his grace chose me even before I was born and called me to serve him.” Did you catch that? God chose him before he was born. He saw everything Paul did and still chose him, knowing he would do it all.

Let this sink in because it directly relates to you and me.

You believe in God. Good! Are you aware that God believes in you? God believed in you before you were born, before you knew to believe in Him. When I say that God believes in you, I am referring to the confidence He places in you.

How can this be? From His perspective, He has already seen your whole life–even what you have yet to do. He accepted you before you breathed your first breath on this planet. Not only does He consider you worthy to do what He has chosen you to do, but He has already sealed it, just as he did for Paul.

The only question is if you will believe in yourself as God believes in you. Perhaps you struggle with this. I did for a long time. Because of my past, I had difficulty accepting it. One day, however, something dawned on me: God had already chosen me for the task to which He appointed me. Past tense. Done. Finished. I had only to accept His choosing.

To refuse to accept this would be equivalent to rejecting God. This was something I was unable to do. So, even though I did not fully understand, I accepted His choosing by faith because I could not knowingly reject Him.

It took a long time to come to terms with this. I still struggle with this some days because we are emotional beings. Emotions are the seat of our doubts and conflicts; consequently, our self-image is entangled there.

Though I still struggle sometimes, I have set my faith to trust and accept God’s choosing. I say it this way: Though I did not choose my path, I chose to accept God’s choosing. This I do, but only by faith.

Paul did this. What he said in today’s passage is a synopsis of what I say here. Paul recognized God’s choosing and chose to accept it. He broke through his past to be what God had for him to be.

You are due for a breakthrough of your own right about now. How about today? Will you accept God’s choosing in your life, or will you continue believing what your emotions tell you? (They never say what God says, by the way.)

You already know which is the right choice. As in the little image at the top, breakthrough to your breakthrough. It has been waiting for you since before you were born. Today is a good day to step into it.