Does Failure Make You Unacceptable?

Feelings of failure often plague those who have grown up or are growing up in a dysfunctional, hurtful home. No matter how much you achieve or succeed, there is a constant desire to do or be more. When there is actual failure in some area, there is a disproportionate amount of self-condemnation. When there is actual success, the requirements change, and instead of rejoicing in your success, you burden yourself new requirements. The constant striving and feelings of failure continue.

You demand perfection of yourself to prove your worth to yourself, to someone else, or to God. I have news for you, my friend: God accepts you as you are, knowing you are already perfect in Christ. Your failures are hid in Christ. You have nothing to prove to God. When you fail in your human frailty, God still sees you as perfect and therefore loves you perfectly. 

For by one offering he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified.                 {Hebrews 10:14}

Being made holy, or "sanctified," is a process of Christian growth which is achieved through applying God's Word to all areas of your life. As you accept the discipline and guidance Christ provides and as you give Him control of your desires, goals, and will, you become more like Christ. The sanctification process is born out of your love for Christ, not because you must prove yourself perfect to be accepted. If you have accepted Christ as your Savior, you are perfect in God's eyes, despite the failure of your flesh.

The Apostle Peter failed in his flesh, but God saw him as perfect in Christ. He used Peter to evangelize the Gentiles and two write two books of the Bible.

David failed in his flesh, but God saw his repentance and used him to lead the nation of Israel. God called David "a man after my own heart." David was loved and accepted, not in spite of his sin, but without any regard to it.

God's grace doesn't look at your sins and failures, nor does it look at your good deeds, your "perfection." It looks only on the merit of Jesus Christ.

Grace means we become worthy before we are worthy.

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Quotes by C.S. Lewis

C.S. Lewis (or "Jack," as he liked to be called) is one of my favorite authors and Christian apologists. His writings are some of the most profound works on Christianity that I have read so far in my experience with Christian apologetic literature. His unique ability to describe complex ideas in a simple ways is an inspiration to me.

So, without further ado, I would like to share with you some quotes attributed to him that I have found helpful, thought-provoking, and encouraging. I hope they will minister to your heart, as well.

"A man can no more diminish God's glory by refusing to worship Him than a lunatic can put out the sun by scribbling 'darkness' on the walls of his cell."

"A young man who wishes to remain a sound atheist cannot be too careful of his reading."

"Aim at heaven and you will get earth thrown in. Aim at earth and you will get neither."

"Christianity, if false, is of no importance, and if true, of infinite importance. The only thing it cannot be is moderately important."

"Courage is not simply one of the virtues, but the form of every virtue at the testing point."

"Failures are finger posts on the road to achievement."

"God cannot give us a happiness and peace apart from Himself, because it is not there. There is no such thing."

"Miracles are a retelling in small letters of the very same story which is written across the whole world in letters too large for some of us to see."

"Nothing that you have not given away will ever really be yours."

"There are two kinds of people: those who say to God, 'Thy will be done,' and those to whom God says, 'All right, then, have it your way.'" 

"We are what we believe we are."

"You are never too old to set another goal or to dream a new dream."

 "You don't have a soul. You are a soul. You have a body."

"To love at all is to be vulnerable. Love anything and your heart will be wrung and possibly broken. If you want to make sure of keeping it intact you must give it to no one, not even an animal. Wrap it carefully round with hobbies and little luxuries; avoid all entanglements. Lock it up safe in the casket or coffin of your selfishness. But in that casket, safe, dark, motionless, airless, it will change. It will not be broken; it will be come unbreakable, impenetrable, irredeemable. To love is to be vulnerable."

"I pray because I can't help myself. I pray because I'm helpless. I pray because the need flows out of me all the time - waking and sleeping. It doesn't change God - it changes me." 

"Love is not an affectionate feeling, but a steady wish for the loved person's ultimate good as far as it can be obtained."

"Atheism turns out to be too simple. If the whole universe has no meaning, we should never have found out that it has no meaning..."

"To be a Christian means to forgive the inexcusable because God has forgiven the inexcusable in you."

"Pain insists upon being attended to. God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our consciences, but shouts in our pains. It is his megaphone to rouse a dead world."

"There are far, far better things ahead than any we leave behind."

"What draws people to be friends is that they see the same truth. They share it."

"I know now, Lord, why you utter no answer. You are yourself the answer. Before your face questions die away. What other answer would suffice?" 

"God allows us to experience the low points in life in order to teach us lessons that we could learn no other way."

"Though our feelings come and go, God's love for us does not."

"It is not your business to succeed, but to do right; when you have done so, the rest lies with God."

"To walk out of His will is to walk into nowhere."

"When you are arguing against God, you are arguing against the very power that makes you able to argue at all."

"God loves us, not because we're lovable, because He is love. Not because He needs to receive, because He delights to give."

"Faith in Christ is the only thing to save you from despair."

"When we lose one blessing, another is often most unexpectedly given in its place."

"If God forgives us, we must forgive ourselves. Otherwise it is like setting up ourselves as a higher tribunal than Him."

"If we only have the will to walk, then God is pleased with our stumbles."

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