Good Morning Everyone,
I have felt led by the Lord to continue our theme of healthy living for two more weeks. At Oak Hill Baptist our study of the Daniel Plan, and the corresponding Sunday morning sermons, is six weeks long. Therefore they will conclude after the second week in February. Since these devotionals are intended to compliment that study, we will continue them for two more weeks as well.
Our theme for this month: “Healthy Living”
Our Bible verse for today: “Therefore, no condemnation now exists for those in Christ Jesus, because the Spirit’s law of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and death.” Romans 8:1-2 (HCSB)
Our thought for today: “We do not need to fear set-backs”.
Do you fear failure? Most people do. Even a small temporary set-back can often be enough to make us discouraged and even to give-up on our goals. The fear of potential failure is one of the primary reasons many people never even attempt to achieve great things or big changes.
Many years ago John Maxwell wrote a great little book entitled, “Failing Forward – Turning Mistakes into Stepping Stones for Success.” John’s premise is that success in anything comes from simply not giving up. When we experience a set-back we should just evaluate what happened and why, learn from it, and then get moving forward again. When we do that, the set-backs simply become stepping stones which lead us to the achievement of our goals.
John wrote, “The difference between average people and achieving people is their perception of and response to failure.” Kyle Rote Jr. put it this way, “There is no doubt in my mind that there are many ways to be a winner, but there is really only one way to be a loser and that is to fail and not look beyond the failure.”
In Romans 8:1-2 Paul was writing primarily about the fact that all of our sins and all of our failures are forgiven by God because of our faith in His Son Jesus. That’s true. But it’s also true that God views all of our failures and all of our set-backs as teachable moments which can lead us to the ultimate achievement of the goal He set for us.
The fact is that nothing is over until you give up. We do not need to fear our set-backs. Learn from it; get up; dust yourself off; and get moving again.
God Bless,
Pastor Jim
Oak Hill Baptist Church 