Written by Pastor Jack Wellman– Erwin Lutzer
Failure Leads to Success
Failure can lead to success if one never gives up. Or failure can lead to giving up, and success will never come. The most famous inventors are those who accomplish great feats but usually through failed attempts. Thomas Edison was never discouraged when asked how many times he’d failed at making a working lightbulb. He simply used these failures to show what wouldn’t work to discover what finally would.
Failure Eliminates
When Thomas Edison was trying to invent a working lightbulb, he failed over a thousand times; but he never gave up. He must have thought the very next try might bring success. If he had given up, then it might have taken dozens of years for someone else to invent the lightbulb. Perseverance paid off for Thomas Edison because he used failure as a staircase, and each failure was a step closer to success.
Failure’s Not Final
When we see biblical figures fail in the Bible, we notice that their failure is never final. We learn more from defeat or failure than we could ever learn from success or everything going our way. Success is born in the furnace of adversity, and so often failure leads to the next attempt and the next until success finally comes. Failure is never fatal or final; failure brings us just that much closer to accomplishing something great for God, if we don’t give up.
True Failure
Real failure occurs when someone stops trying altogether because if they’re not even trying or they give up, then failure is inevitable. No success ever came from simply giving up. Look at all the human accomplishments in history and you will see the pattern of those who never gave up. But the surest way to fail is to just quit.
Conclusion
Pastor Erwin Lutzer said, “Those who have failed miserably are often the first to see God’s formula for success,” which means you and me in whatever we are trying to accomplish. Look at failure as your friend. It is pointing you back to seek another solution until success finally comes.
