How many times have you found yourself stewing on all the failures of your day, or your life? This obsessing on stupid decisions, words spoken and actions left undone, will lead us eventually to feeling as though we are failures. There is a big difference between failing sometimes and being a failure. And I haven’t found that beating ourselves up is the answer to that distinction.
Sometimes your past compounds this feeling because someone in your life has reminded you of your failures repeatedly. If you are only told of your misses all the time, you are eventually going to take on “failure” as your identity and live accordingly. Sometimes this looks like giving up, while other times it looks like doing all the stupid things because you are expected to anyway.
I’ve spoken to several kids who were considered failures already so they went ahead and rushed headlong into that identity. Why try to be something else when you are seen as failing all the time anyway? And others fight failure tooth and nail because they are trying to be better, but nothing is ever good enough in their own minds.
You only beat yourself up because you think you are going to do better next time. God says that apart from Him you can do nothing. (John 15:5) We nail that standard every time—nothing. But in Him, we are more than conquerors. He is the Victorious One who has defeated sin, Satan and evil. We get to partake in that victory.
God says you are more than a conqueror through Him who loved you. A conqueror is not a failure—they are mutually exclusive. You may not feel this is true, but the more you fixate on being a failure, the more enmeshed in that lie you become. If, instead, you focus on the truth even when your emotions disagree, you may find your life changing.
Today, when you start to stew and wallow in the mistakes you’ve made whether real or imagined, come back to the truth that in Jesus, you are a conqueror not a failure. Ask Him to remind you who you are, and live out of His plenty when you don’t have enough.
Who you aren’t: Failure
Who you are: Conqueror
Who God is: Victorious One
But in all these things we overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loved us. Romans 8:37
What is distracting you today and making you feel like a failure? Will you turn to Jesus and focus on the One who loves you and makes you a conqueror in His Life?
Interested in reading the rest of the book? You can order Identity: Truth vs. Lie; Short Simple Reminders of Who You Are in Christ here on the website or on Amazon in paperback or ebook form here.