Episode 8 - Recovering From Failure: Learning to Trust When Life Feels Heavy
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[00:00:00] Welcome to From Failure to Fulfillment, where failure isn't the end. It's an acronym for Growth, friend, analyze, investigate, learn, understand, regroup, and Execute. I'm your host, Dr. Andrew Blackwood, also known as Coach Drew, and together we'll discover how God transforms our failures into steps toward Christ-like fulfillment.
Welcome back to From Failure to Fulfillment. I don't know about you, but there are times when life feels heavy for me. Discouragement, fatigue and setbacks, they weigh on me. When that happens, taking the next step can feel impossible. Today I wanna talk with you about leaning into God when you're tired.
When the path is hard and why trusting him even in the smallest [00:01:00] steps is the key to recovering from failure and moving forward. Here's the truth. Leaning into God is not always easy. Our human tendencies is to want to see the whole picture. We wanna know exactly how things will unfold before we act and when we're tired or discouraged.
That desire becomes even stronger. We often try to solve everything on our own. We try to save ourselves carrying the weight of expectations, responsibilities, or even our mistakes or fatigue, clouds our judgment, discouragement, SAPs and drains. Our energy and anxiety tells us to stop trying. The scripture reminds us, trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean [00:02:00] not on your own understanding.
In all your ways, acknowledge him and he shall direct your paths. That's Proverbs chapter three, verses five to six. We don't have to have all the answers. We get to trust God. The very next step, let's look at the Israelites in the wilderness. I love to refer to them because I can relate to them so much.
God led them with a pillar of fire by night and a cloud by day. They couldn't see ahead of them. They didn't see the promised land at all, let alone the whole thing. They only saw what was immediately ahead, right in front of them, and God asked them to trust him step by step. We can even think about Moses at the Red Sea.[00:03:00]
I often, as a child would think that he did such great things. And while his role was noteworthy and pivotal, Moses didn't part the Red Sea. He didn't part the water. He just lifted the rod. That was the step that God gave him. The part that God gave him to play was something that he could do. The miracle came when he obeyed even without seeing the full picture.
Life is often like that when it seems impossible. The key isn't knowing everything. It's lifting the rod, it's taking the next step. It's trusting God to handle the rest, trusting him to do the miraculous with the little that we offer. Sometimes the very active obedience in a small thing sets in motion what we couldn't accomplish on our own.[00:04:00]
So how do we lean into God when we're tired? Here are a few practical steps. Number one, pause and pray. It's important to acknowledge our fatigue, our emotions, the discouragement or the anxiety. Breathe, calm ourselves and invite God into the situation. Even a short prayer makes a difference. God help me. I invite you.
I welcome you. Then we focus on the next step. That's step number two. You don't have to see the whole picture. Very rarely, if ever, will we see the whole picture, but we can identify one tangible action that we can take today. Small steps in faith, build momentum. [00:05:00] It's the small step that leads to consistency.
Number three. Remember God's faithfulness. It's important to recall moments when God carried you through difficulty. Keep a journal of his goodness and reflect on it. Come back to it. Number four, we get to rest in his presence. Sometimes the next step is simply sitting quietly with God, letting him guide you and trusting that he will.
Matthew 11, verse 28 to 30 reminds us, come to me all you who labor and are heavy laden and I will give you rest. This verse is for you. God knows that you will labor and you will have difficult times, and he invites you to come. He doesn't grow tired of us coming to him again and again and again, and as we come [00:06:00] to him, we get to bring our thoughts captive.
This is number five. When discouraging thoughts arise because they will, and often they'll have all or nothing thinking and negative what ifs. That lead to catastrophizing and a whole lot of self blame. It's important to bring these thoughts to God. Paul says it this way. We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.
You can find that verse in two Corinthians 10 verse five. Even in small ways, revisiting these thoughts, telling God about them, acknowledging what's true and what's not. These practices shift our perspective and they prepare us for the next step. Recovery from failure begins with trust. When we stop trying to fix everything ourselves [00:07:00] and take the next step in faith, we allow God to work fatigue, fear and discouragement.
They're not failures, they are signals that it is time to lean in deeper. Where are you trying to do it alone? What is one step God is calling you to take today? By trusting him in these small steps, we recover, we grow and move closer to fulfillment. Remember, Moses didn't part the Red Sea by himself. The children of Israel didn't get to the Promised Land in one day.
You don't need to see the whole picture. Just lift the rod and take the next step and trust God with the rest recovery. Breakthrough and peace come step by step as we lean on him. I [00:08:00] wanna encourage you to take a moment right now to identify your next step, the next step that God is inviting you to take and speak it out loud In faith, God says, for I know the plans I have for you.
Plans to prosper you and not to harm you. Plans to give you hope. At a future, your next step might be just repeating this verse, and I wanna encourage you, keep leaning, keep leaning in, keep trusting, and keep taking those next steps toward fulfillment. See you next time. Thanks for listening to From Failure To It.
If this episode encouraged you, share it with a friend and don't forget to like, follow, or subscribe so you won't miss the next one. Until then, remember, with God, failure is never [00:09:00] final.
