With WGA group members in mind, I pray often, “What will help?” Constantly searching and praying for the core element upon which success and failure in life is founded, I think of people the Lord sends our way, and I ache for them,
- when a person wrestles with oppressive temptation,
- when a parent despairs over a son or daughter moving toward gender transition,
- when a pastor or youth leader face their own real or perceived inadequacy, recognizing their resources are the equivalent of (“5 loaves and 2 fish”[i] offered in the face of the hunger of 5,000).
As a product of our culture, obsessed with success and terrified of failure, I wrestle with the lingering faulty lessons learned from it. We’re taught to plan better, hustle harder, and optimize everything. But even with all the strategies and effort, we still struggle with the quiet fear: What if I’m missing the mark? What if I fail?
Abraham Lincoln once said, “You cannot fail in any laudable object, unless you allow your mind to be improperly directed.” [ii]
As a word nerd, I automatically turned to Merriam-Webster:
“Laudable” means deserving praise or commendation; it refers to actions or goals that are praiseworthy. For example, a laudable effort to help the community is one that is worthy of recognition.
“Object” in this context, means a focus of attention, feeling, thought, or action. For example, a product that was so bad it became an object of derision.”
In other words, Lincoln’s point is that failure is about a lack of focus on actions and goals that are commendable, praiseworthy; it’s about allowing our minds (and I would add, our hearts) to be misdirected. We can be busy, active, and even sincere, but still fail if our lives are not rooted in the right source. That’s why many people, even faithful, hardworking believers, find themselves exhausted, anxious, and discouraged.
The only real remedy for this fear of failure, or sense of inadequacy, is not better planning or more self-confidence. It is something deeper: intimate, daily time with God.
Andrew Murray, in God’s Best Secrets, points to the single most essential ingredient for a life of spiritual success and lasting impact. He reflects on Psalm 31:15—“My time is in Thy hand.” For Murray, this isn’t just a poetic verse; it’s a life-altering truth. He writes:
“My time is in Thy hand. It belongs to Thee; Thou alone hast a right to command it. I yield it wholly and gladly to Thy disposal. What mighty power time can exert if wholly given up to God!”
Fear of failure loses its grip when we recognize this: our time, our goals, our very lives are not our own, they are His. When we stop treating time as something to control and start seeing it as something to surrender, everything changes.
Murray goes even further, addressing the spiritual fatigue so many of us quietly carry:
“What fellowship with God! What holiness and blessedness! What likeness to His image and what power in His service for blessing to men!—all on the one condition: that we have sufficient time with God… And yet how many of God’s servants…confess that the feebleness of their spiritual life…is due to the failure to make the leisure, and, when secured, rightly to use it, for daily communion with God.”
If you’re wrestling with the fear that you’re not doing enough, not becoming enough, not achieving enough—this is the answer: Return to time with God.
The root of real confidence, clarity, and strength doesn’t come from trying harder. It comes from being filled—daily, intentionally, and humbly—in the presence of God. Without that, even our best efforts leave us empty. With it, even small steps bear eternal fruit.
So, if you want to overcome fear…
If you want to succeed in the things that truly matter…
If you want to walk in peace and not panic…
Start with this one decision: Surrender your time to God.
Don’t quite know how? I have a few general tips to consider:
- Begin each day in surrender. Pray, “Lord, my time is in Your hand. Lead me today.”
- Carve out space—not just for telling Him what you need, but for communion. Quiet your heart and let Him speak. Open His Word and listen, not just for guidance, but for intimacy. Murray’s Devotional, God’s Best Secrets[iii], and Brother Lawrence’s The Practice of the Presence of God[iv] were my training ground for this process.
- Invite God into your planning; set your goals and your schedule together with Him. Don’t just ask Him to bless your plans, ask Him to reveal His.
- Rest in His timing. When you’re walking with Him, delays and interruptions aren’t necessarily defeats; they can be His intervention or Divine appointments.
We were never meant to carry the weight of success and failure alone. We were never meant to strive for something eternal with only human strength. The only remedy for our fear of failure—and the power behind real success—is this: intimacy with God that can only come from quality time spent with Him.
Everything begins there. Everything flows from there. Everything worth doing will grow in the soil of that quiet, sacred place.
So let this be our daily pursuit: not perfection, not performance, but presence—His presence. That’s where the fear fades. That’s where His vision for us is born, it’s where the focus on laudable goals and actions begins.
[i] Matthew 14:17-19
[iii] God’s best secrets: Daily devoted meditations: Murray, Andrew: 9780310297109: Amazon.com: Books
[iv] The Practice of the Presence of God: Complete text with Illustrations – Kindle edition by Lawrence, Brother, Fish, Casey, Clampitt, Joseph. Religion & Spirituality Kindle eBooks @ Amazon.com