God can turn failure into success if you would let Him
The bible shows us that God is always doing something new today in our lives and in our nation. Nations rise and fall at the wave of His hand. What worked well yesterday may not work tomorrow. He can turn failure into success, and weaknesses into strengths if you would let Him. Jesus died in weakness but was raised in power. Therefore, God is always looking for new ways to save humanity and prosper them. With regards to life’s challenges, how should we perceive them and face them? The Prophet Isaiah said,
“Do not call to mind the former things, Or ponder things of the past. Behold, I will do something new. Now it will spring forth; Will you not be aware of it? I will even make a roadway in the wilderness, rivers in the desert.” (Isaiah 43:18-19)
When we are faced with life’s challenges, we must not call to mind the former things, nor wallow in past failures. God appeals to us to change our mind-set when we perceive life’s new challenges. It is man’s fallen nature to draw conclusions of the future based on past experiences of failure or success. Therefore, we should keep our minds open to God and be alert to hidden opportunities. But God says that what has happened in the past is past. He is about to do something new. The moment we make the decision to embrace a new destiny, God opens our eyes to perceive things differently. Isaiah, in the face of a national crisis, encouraged the people to change their mind-set and to prepare themselves to receive a new destiny. The promise of a new destiny is based on God’s unchanging love towards us. God is able to do the impossible when we are willing to change the way we perceive challenges!
Prophet Joel prophesied that God would restore His people for the years that the locust had eaten. God’s people will never be put to shame (Joel 2:25,27). The prophet Joel and Isaiah’s vision came to pass when the Jewish nation regained her sovereignty in May 1948. Today, 67 years after gaining independence as a nation, Israel ranks 19th place in the United Nations’ Human Development Index. (Human Development Index is a way of measuring a nation’s development by indicators of life expectancy, educational attainment and income.) Singapore, having just celebrated her 50th golden jubilee, with about 15% of its population being Christian, is ranked 9th place. This testifies of what God will do for a people who are willing to embrace a new destiny.
Moses, the great deliverer of Israel came face to face with the Egyptian war machine when he was tasked to lead two million Israelites out of Egypt into the land that God had prepared for them. God did something never done before: ten cosmic miracles and the parting of the Red Sea. With God, there is always a new and supernatural way to overcome our present challenges!
In the coming of Jesus, God did something new again. Instead of overpowering Israel’s enemies with physical might like that of King David and the prophets, He gave Himself as a sacrifice. Even to this day, the Jewish people are still unable to see this new thing that Jesus did because they were entrenched in the old. The death and the resurrection of Jesus broke the bondage of sin and death over humanity.
In the coming of the Spirit, God did something new again on the Day of the Pentecost. The Spirit of Jesus was sent to dwell within man so that man could put on Christ and work miracles like He did. Still, many people today do not accept the working of miracles as normality like Jesus did in those days.
The Law teaches us to see all things in the light of the Word and with eyes of faith. Thereafter, we will consider the wisdom accumulated from past experiences. Jesus, when He was rejected by His own people, saw with eyes of faith that the fields were ripe for reaping even though harvest was some months away. Let the words of the Law condition our minds to perceive life’s challenges with God’s perspective. Then, we will surely experience the new, the supernatural, and the abundance of the Kingdom.
There is a story of how Bata, the shoe manufacturer became the shoes of Africa. At the end of the nineteenth century, just as colonial Africa was opening up as a market, all the manufacturers of shoes in Victorian England sent their representatives to Africa to see if there might be an opportunity there for their products. All duly came back in time with the same answer. “Nobody in Africa wears shoes. So, there is no market for our products there.” All, that is, save for the Bata representative. He came back saying, “Nobody in Africa wears shoes. So, there’s a huge market for our products in Africa!” And that’s why signs promoting Bata appear all over Africa today, even in the remotest parts. It’s why Bata’s shoes are known as the shoes of Africa.
Bata’s story tells us that there is always another perspective that is higher and wiser than ours. If we would tap into God’s mind and perspective, we could turn every misfortune into a golden opportunity. In Christ, we can turn the impossible of today into the possible of tomorrow.