Maria 222/85DO 1928

—A Talk to a Leader

1. YOU NEED TO REMEMBER THAT THE LORD NEVER FAILS, EVEN IF YOU FAIL! No matter how many times you've failed Him, He won't fail you, He'll bring you through! The best thing you can do is to keep your mind on the Lord & let Him do it! I know God's going to help you because I prayed for you & He answers my prayers! Best of all, Jesus is praying for you, "He ever liveth to make intercession for you," & you know God will answer Jesus' prayers! We're all praying for you, so you don't have to worry & you don't need to feel so bad!

2. WHY HAVE YOU BEEN WORRYING SO? We all fail sometime or other‚ in fact we all fail often, but the Lord didn't let you fail that much, did He? We all get mixed up & confused a little sometimes & the Enemy really fights us‚ so don't be condemned about it! In fact, in one sense, you should be happy you failed! If you're going to feel anything about it, then be happy, because maybe that's exactly what the Lord wanted you to do, fail—right? Can you look at it that way? The Lord probably wanted you to fail so you wouldn't be thinking too highly of yourself & think that you knew what to do. If you hadn't failed you could give yourself a nice little pat on the back, but now you're more humble & more dependent on the Lord.

3. BE HAPPY! "ALL THINGS WORK TOGETHER FOR GOOD TO THEM THAT LOVE THE LORD!" You shouldn't feel condemned & you shouldn't worry about it, you should take the other attitude & be happy you failed! You didn't fail too much & you didn't cause any problems that couldn't be easily remedied. The Lord shook you up before you went too far, & you learned some lessons from it, & you didn't do anything you weren't supposed to do except have the wrong attitude‚ maybe‚ so there's no big problem! The Lord didn't let it cause any big drastic catastrophic problems & you didn't cause anybody to stumble, so you should be happy!

4. ACTUALLY IT PROBABLY DID MORE GOOD THAN HARM! I think you should look at it from a positive viewpoint & see the good that's come from it! In a way it's your pride to be so sorry you failed! I don't think it's entirely pride, as I know you sincerely feel bad that you made the wrong decision & you feel bad about any trouble it's caused, & you feel that you hurt & disappointed us, but I don't want you to feel too bad, 'cause I don't. It's like parents with their children: How hurt or disappointed do you feel when your children make a mistake? Oh yes‚ of course you feel a little bad‚ but you expect them to fail & to be bad sometimes or make the wrong decisions, it's all a part of growing up. You don't get all sensitive or offended because your child does something wrong; you know they're going to be that way & they're going to do things wrong sometimes, they're not perfect. Of course I'm not talking about a crime so serious that you have a major problem on your hands, I'm talking about the normal everyday misinterpretation or confusion or maybe even disobediences that children have, that's all in the course of life. If the child wants to please you & please the Lord, he gets back on the right track & starts doing what he's supposed to do & you‚ the parent, don't feel like he's failed.

5. IN FACT, THE INITIAL DISAPPOINTMENT IS ALL BUT FORGOTTEN IN THE HAPPINESS YOU FEEL when you see him learning his lesson & doing the right thing. And that's much the way I feel about you; you're learning & you're bound to make mistakes. I'm just glad it wasn't serious. It could have been, but the Lord knew you wanted to do what was right, & He corrected you.

6. BUT LIKE I SAID, IN SOME WAYS I THINK IT'S PRIDE FOR YOU TO FEEL SO TERRIBLY BAD ABOUT YOUR MISTAKE! You wanted to do the right thing‚ you wanted to be perfect & not make any mistakes because of your pride. That's part of it, I'm sure. On the other hand, also you didn't want to hurt us because you love us, which we understand. But in a case when the Lord wants to work on your pride, it's good that you fail or you do the wrong thing, or you don't always hit the mark, because then you realise that only the Lord can do anything & when you do succeed‚ it's only the Lord, it's not you! Sometimes He has to let you fail to show you that He's the only One that can succeed! He has to let you see that He's even in control of that & sometimes He has to let you fail to keep you feeling humble & keep you with that humble spirit!

7. AS YOU'VE ADMITTED YOURSELF, PRIDE HAS BEEN ONE OF YOUR MAJOR PROBLEMS. In fact it's a major problem with a lot of us, but the Lord knows your heart & He knows you don't want it to be a problem & He knows you're praying to change, so the Lord answers your prayers. Of course, He doesn't always answer them the way you would like & not as easily as you would like, but He knows the best way & He'll do it‚ if you ask Him, but He'll do it in the way that He knows is best!

8. YOU NEED TO LOOK ON IT AS A POSITIVE THING, FROM THE POSITIVE VIEWPOINT, THAT THE LORD'S NOT TRYING TO CRUSH YOU TO THE GROUND & LET THE ENEMY WALK ALL OVER YOU‚ but that He's actually honouring you by giving you these lessons & by letting these things happen. You ought to be really thanking Him for it! You may feel bad, but you should thank the Lord, because it's wonderful that you can learn these lessons. It's even a blessing that we can fail sometimes‚ because often we get our greatest victories out of seeming defeats!

9. SO KEEP LOOKING UP & KEEP BEING POSITIVE ABOUT IT! It's not that the Enemy has gotten in & you've failed! The Lord may have let you be somewhat confused about things just so you would be humbled by it! The Lord lets those things happen because He wants to teach you bigger lessons & bring a bigger victory out of it.

10. SO WHAT I'M JUST TELLING YOU IS TO BE HAPPY! REJOICE! You don't have to worry about it or feel condemned & worried about your failures, because they're all working together for good! TTL! So you don't have to worry, OK?

11. I JUST WANTED TO ENCOURAGE YOU TO LOOK ON THE BRIGHT SIDE & the positive because there's much more positive about it than negative! Amen?—Be positive!

Copyright (c) 1998 by The Family