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Don't strive to be perfect, strive to do God's will.

Coping with failure can often be hard. This can be especially tough after a long string of success or victory in an area. Many Christians deal with this dilemma. How do you deal with the pain of failure when you know that your heart is right? Let me explain. Maybe you realize your failure and want to correct it. You have things in place to control failures of that sort to a certain extent and as long as they are followed you will have continued success. However, relaxing those boundaries has lead to your demise. I have an encouraging word for those of you that fall into that category. Realize what God says about the purposeful life he has planned for you. In Jeremiah 29:11, ““for I know the plans I have for you,”” says the Lord. They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you future and a hope.”” In this passage, the prophet Jeremiah was speaking to the wayward children of Israel. They had fallen into sin and idolatry and God had given them over to their enemies. They had the laws of God to follow that would ensure their success in the Promised Land (see Deuteronomy 28:45-52; 30:15-20). So you can understand why they probably felt like failures. However, the loving arms of God the Father wanted to teach his people a lesson in trusting and obeying him and unfortunately the only way they could learn was through pain and slavery. So you may ask why God allows these things in my life if his plans for me are good. This is an excellent question and I will try my best to answer it decently. If you are a parent or had parents (to include everyone!) there were things that you went through as a child or that your children experience--good things and bad things. For example, the time that you were learning to ride your bike and you fell off and skinned your elbow or knee. Even though the fall hurt you physically it also taught you what not to do. My point is that in that instance of pain and failure you also learned what to avoid. God takes us through circumstances and even though we may feel like failures and we are hurt by those situations God is trying to teach us a lesson that will help us. He is giving us the tools to develop a rock-solid character. He is enabling us, through the difficulties, to become a man or woman of integrity. So when he says that his plans are “for our good”. He means it. Often we get so caught up in the difficulty of our problem and we start to focus on ourselves and what we must do to rectify the situation. When all along God is showing us that we must depend on him in everything even when we think that we are failing. God has declared us more than conquerors through Christ Jesus, so he obviously looks at us as a finished, polished stone—not the diamond in the rough that we think we are!

God please give me an attitude of gracious obedience when enduring trials that seem to come to break me down. Help me to realize and know that all things are designed by you to help me become the man or woman that you desire me to be. Amen

Suggested readings: Jeremiah 29:11-14; 30:8-17; 31:3-6; Romans 8:31-39

"'Christ in You...'" from Dale Krebbs

The Saints Who Slept