A prayer for those who fear failure

 I come to you, O Christ, in dismay, fearing I might fail in what is before me. 

Knowing, that if I would truly serve my Maker, in whatever capacity or vocation, it is not necessary for your own good, and for the good of the kingdom of God, that I would sometimes be met with such fear and dismay?

But how could such a besetting fear ever be for my good, or for the good of God’s eternal kingdom?

Maybe, under the Spirit’s tutelage, such fears might become messengers of grace, revealing to you only what was true all along, in yourself you do not have the strength or the wisdom or the ability to accomplish the task to which you are called. 

Apart from the Spirit of God breathing life into your incomplete and sin-tainted efforts, apart from the Father blessing and multiplying your inadequate offerings, apart from your Lord meeting you in your stumbling attempts at faithfulness, no good work will come to fruition, no achievement will endure, no lasting benefit will come from your labours. 

And so I must come repeatedly to the end of trust in my strength, that I might avail myself again and again of his strength. 

Then let my fears of failure drive me, O Lord, to collapse here upon your strong shoulders, and here to rest, reminded again that I and all of your children are always utterly dependent upon you to bring to completion, in and through us, the good works which you have prepared beforehand for us to do. It is not my own work that is before me now, but yours!

Yes, I will take heart in this revelation! That outcomes of my labours are never in my hands, but in God’s. I have but one task, to be faithful. 

The success of our endeavours is not ours to judge. You work in ways that we cannot comprehend. And in your economy, there will be no waste. Even what we judge as failure, You will tool to greater purpose. 

If that is true, what greater end could you intend to work from my failings?

Who can discern? But consider that our tender Father might use even our failures and weaknesses to make us more humble and more sympathetic to the failures and failings of others, thereby shaping our hearts into a nearer likeness of the heart of Christ?

If our greatest good is to bear in fuller measure the image of our Lord, then might not his greatest and most holy good to us come cloaked in guise of defeat and dismay?

And if that is our Lord’s sacred intention, then who is to say how great a success even our failures might be, when read aright at last in the chronicles of eternity?

So we relinquish now all vain attempts to parse the mysteries of God’s intent. We cannot think your thoughts, or reckon your deep purposes. It is enough to know that all you do is done in love for us. 

Amen

Use then, O Lord, even my failures, and my fears of failing, to advance your purposes in my heart and in your kingdom and in this world. My confidence is only in you. 

Amen