The Fear of Failure
Table of Contents
Are you afraid of failure?
Maybe you remember a time in your life when you felt like you were invincible? Like nothing could touch you? That no matter what, you would be ok?
Sometimes we feel invincible, but the truth is we’re not.
And maybe one of the most paralyzing fears we face is the fear of failure.
What if we’re not invincible? What if we fail? What if we can’t do it?
I’m convinced that one of the greatest fears people face is the fear of what if?
Some of you are scared today. You’re wondering if you’ve failed as parents. Or if you’ve failed as a husband. As a mother. Some of you are afraid you’ve failed at work. You’re worried that deal will fail or your business will fail.
We’re afraid that whatever it is in life that is coming at us like a freight train, that we can’t handle it, we can’t tackle it.
It’s not just actual failure, it’s the fear of failure that has such control over us.
The fear of failure may be one of the single greatest fears the enemy holds over us. And no one is immune.
Elijah
This happened with one of God’s most famous prophets, a guy by the name of Elijah.
Elijah was a prophet of God at a time when a man by the name of Ahab was king of Israel. Ahab was what you might call a wicked king. He married a woman who you might have heard of. Her name was Jezebel. These two together were pretty terrible.
Ahab & Jezebel together were leading Israel down the path of destruction. They set up false gods for the people to worship & filled the land with idols. Then they set up people to serve those idols as priests & prophets. In fact, here’s what the Bible says about Ahab. It says he “did what was evil in the LORD’s sight, even more than any of the kings before him.” (1 Kings 16.30)
So God sends Elijah to be his prophet for his people. This puts Elijah on the front lines with Ahab & Jezebel. But God did some amazing things in & through Elijah.
– First, God sent a drought.
– Then God sent Elijah to find refuge from Ahab by a stream & fed him twice a day by ravens.
– When the stream dried up, God fed Elijah by sending him to a widow in Sidon & provided a miraculous supply of oil & flour for bread.
– When this woman’s son dies, Elijah raises him back to life!
– And then Elijah has a literal mountain top experience with God when God delivers fire from Heaven & defeats 850 prophets of Baal!
What happens next is amazing. You would expect after this all this that Elijah would be riding high. That he would feel closer to God than he’s ever felt before. That no temptation could touch him. That nothing could divert him or distract him from what God was doing in his life.
But, in fact, the exact opposite happens.
Elijah sinks to an all time low. Listen to what happens next in Elijah’s life…
When Ahab got home, he told Jezebel everything Elijah had done, including the way he had killed all the prophets of Baal. So Jezebel sent this message to Elijah: “May the gods strike me and even kill me if by this time tomorrow I have not killed you just as you killed them.”
Elijah was afraid and fled for his life. He went to Beersheba, a town in Judah, and he left his servant there. Then he went on alone into the wilderness, traveling all day. He sat down under a solitary broom tree and prayed that he might die. “I have had enough, Lord,” he said. “Take my life, for I am no better than my ancestors who have already died.” I Kings 19.1-4
Elijah is afraid. After a literal mountain top experience with God, he is afraid. Why?
What if…
What if Jezebel really comes after me?
What if I’m the last prophet of God?
What if they come to kill me too?
It seems that no matter what God has done for us, even when he has acted in unbelievable ways in our past, that we as humans can & will still experience fear.
Why?
I think we have to accept the fact that fear is a deeply embedded human emotion, an auto response. Faith? Faith is a choice.
So when someone jumps out from behind a wall & screams, you jump. You respond in fear. Why? Your first response in that split second of a moment isn’t faith. It isn’t the auto response that everything is going to be ok. No. We almost always respond instinctively in fear. But after that, we have a choice. To continue to live in fear or to choose to believe.
But still, why is Elijah so afraid of Jezebel & her threats? I think we can find the answer in that last verse we read:
[Elijah] sat down under a solitary broom tree & prayed that he might die. “I have had enough, LORD,” he said. “Take my life for I am no better than my ancestors who have already died.” 1 Kings 19.4:
What if, what if what Elijah was really afraid of wasn’t Jezebel, her threats or even of death itself. What if what Elijah was really afraid of was FAILURE?
What if… what if I’ve failed? What if as a prophet of God, I’ve failed?
What if I’m a failure in a long line of failures. Just like my those before me. What if I have failed just like they failed?
FAILURE
Have you ever gotten this low? This depressed? This afraid of failure?
Have you ever been there? Completely dejected? Defeated? Done?
Maybe, just like Elijah, you just experienced incredible success. Maybe you just came down off the mountain.
You walk out of marriage counseling feeling victorious, like you & your spouse just had a major breakthrough, like things are going to work out & be ok… only to learn 48 hours later that they cheated again.
You go to meet with the doctor & get good news. Everything is going to be ok. You’ve made it through the most difficult part & it looks like the treatment is working. Come back in 6 months for a checkup. We’re sure things will be good, but let’s keep a close eye on it. Only when you go back expecting to get more good news, you get the exact opposite. Your worst fears are becoming a reality.
Or you think things are finally getting better between you & your teenager. Things are finally getting better after years of struggle. You’ve done everything within your power to help. You’ve spent countless hours & even more money than you could have ever imagined to help your son, your daughter. You think the worst is over & that things are finally in a good place. Then you get the phone call.
Every time you get your hopes up is after a mountain top experience. You just came off the mountain praising God for the incredible things He has done. It’s like he sent fire from heaven in the face of those 850 pagan prophets. And then it’s like someone has just pulled the rug out from under you.
What now?
Maybe, like Elijah, you’re starting to doubt God’s calling on your life. Maybe you’re even doubting His presence. Even though you’ve experienced God’s goodness in the past it seems like it’s nowhere to be found in your present.
Let’s be honest & let’s be clear… This is HARD on our faith. When we experience victory only to discover defeat.. only to find out that even more trouble is on the way. We know in our heart of hearts that we should choose to believe again in God. But our auto response is fear. Instantly, we’re afraid again. And understandably so.
Evil is persistent. But here’s a truth I want you to hold on to today: God is even more persistent.
Evil pursues us, But God pursues us more.
Here’s how I know.
Then [Elijah] lay down and slept under the broom tree. But as he was sleeping, an angel touched him and told him, “Get up and eat!” He looked around and there beside his head was some bread baked on hot stones and a jar of water! So he ate and drank and lay down again.
Then the angel of the Lord came again and touched him and said, “Get up and eat some more, or the journey ahead will be too much for you.”
So he got up and ate and drank, and the food gave him enough strength to travel forty days and forty nights to Mount Sinai, the mountain of God. There he came to a cave, where he spent the night.
God saw Elijah all alone under that tree, & God cared.
Elijah thinks he’s all alone under a tree praying for God to end his life. He falls asleep in his despair. Then, an angel touches him & wakes him up. The angel has food for Elijah.
Then Elijah is led to a cave on a mountain where he meets with God. You may remember the story. God tells Elijah to stand before him on the mountain. Elijah goes outside the cave & stands there. Then a mighty wind comes, like a hurricane. But God wasn’t in the wind. Then there’s an earthquake & the ground underneath Elijah shakes violently, but God isn’t in the earthquake. Then there’s a fire, but God isn’t in the fire either. But after the fire, there’s the sound of silence. And it’s in the silence that God is found. It’s in the silence that God speaks to Elijah.
Notice the kindness & concern of your God for His servant.
If you’re afraid, God will come to your aid.
If you’re exhausted, God will give you rest.
If you’re hungry, he will feed you.
If you’re lonely, God will meet with you.
If you need to hear from Him, He will speak to you. Get quiet. Listen.
Whenever you face the fear of failure, first thing is to remember you are never alone. 1 Kings 19.5-13.
The fear is, if you get alone with God you’ll hear him say you’ve failed, that he’s somehow disappointed in you. But that’s the voice of the enemy. The opposite of fear isn’t courage. It isn’t even faith. It’s love. As one of Jesus’ friends once said, “Perfect love casts out fear.”
Here’s what I want us to remember today. God sees. God cares. He’s watching. He’s never far away. And sometimes, he wants to come & talk with you just to tell you he loves you. Because He sees. And He cares. He knows when you’re up. And He knows when you’re down. He knows when you’ve been hit by the freight train. And even when you feel like a failure he’s here to remind you that He is near. That His love never fails.
I serve as the Co-Senior Minister at First Colony Church of Christ in Sugar Land, TX. I enjoy sports, running, fishing & life with the family. I’ve been in ministry since 1999. My wife Alisha & I have three amazing children, Will, Ella Grace & Emma Love. Thank you for stopping by my website!
