Failure and Success by A.W. Tozer

1. Paralysis From Past MistakesFor as the heavens are high above the earth, so great is His mercy toward those who fear Him; as far as the east is from the west, so far has He removed our transgressions from us. --Psalm 103:11-12Do not let any of the things of the world or past mistakes paralyze your hearts. I believe there are Christians who have allowed some of their past mistakes to paralyze them. You were so bright and cheerful in your spiritual life once, and then you made some tragic mistake or had something happen to you. You got out of it somehow, and prayed and wept your way out of it. But it did something to you, and now you cannot lick it. Past wrongs that have been done to you, past failures, times you thought you were going to win and did not, or present sins or discouragement - these things are not mental at all. They are deeper than that; they are subconscious, and they prevent us from believing.I most urgently exhort you, and I trust God Almighty to deliver you; to sponge that out of your spirit; to sponge that out of your heart so you are not hindered by unbelief. Rut, Rot or Revival: The Condition of the Church, pp. 162-163"Lord, I'm surely not the only one who desparately needs this reminder this morning. So many of us struggle with past sins, failures, or hurts. I pray for all of my fellow-servants who need deliverance, who need to have the past sponged out of their spirits and hearts. Amen."

2. If a Man FallsIf we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. --1 John 1:9Next, are you allowing Satan to magnify the memories of your spiritual failures? He will always keep them before you unless you take your stand and move up in faith.The devil will whisper, "You didn't get very far along toward the deeper life, did you?"He will say, "You made a big 'to-do' about wanting to be filled with the Spirit and you really flopped, didn't you?"He will taunt you with the fact that you may have stumbled in the faith--and perhaps more than once! The devil wants you to live in a state of discouraged chagrin and remorse.

3. The School of FailureAs a father pities his children, so the Lord pities those who fear Him. For He knows our frame; He remembers that we are dust. --Psalm 103:13-14For some of us last year was one in which we did not acquit ourselves very nobly as Christians, considering the infinite power available to us through the indwelling Spirit. But through the goodness of God we may go to school to our failures. The man of illuminated mind will learn from his mistakes, yes even from his sins. If his heart is trusting and penitent, he can be a better man next year for last year's fault-but let him not return again to folly. Repentance should be radical and thorough, and the best repentance for a wrong act, as Fenelon said, is not to do it again....Brother Lawrence expressed the highest moral wisdom when he testified that if he stumbled and fell he turned at once to God and said, "O Lord, this is what You may expect of me if You leave me to myself." He then accepted forgiveness, thanked God and gave himself no further concern about the matter. The Warfare of the Spirit, pp. 102-104"Oh Lord, some of us have graduate degrees from this school! Help us to learn well from our failures, to accept Christ's forgiveness, and to move on. Give victory for today, I pray, in Jesus' name. Amen."Remember, the Bible does not teach that if a man falls down, he can never rise again. The fact that he falls is not the most important thing--but rather that he is forgiven and allows God to lift him up! I Talk Back to the Devil, p. 7"Father, I worship You this morning and thank You for the wonderful truth of 1 John 1:9. Amen."

4. Tune the StringsDo not neglect the gift that is in you, which was given to you by prophecy with the laying on of the hands of the eldership. Meditate on these things; give yourself entirely to them, that your progress may be evident to all. --1 Timothy 4:14-15I have been forced to admit that one of the things hardest for me to understand and try to reconcile is the complete aimlessness of so many Christians' lives....Probably the worst part of this situation among us is the fact that so many of our Christian brothers and sisters have unusual gifts and talents and capacities-yet they have not exercised this discipline of girding up the mind and spiritual potential in order to make the necessary progress in the Christian life.Why should a pastor have to confess total failure from year to year? Why should he have to go from one church to another, starting something, trying something-only to admit failure again?I don't think he has ever really girded himself. He has abilities but they are not disciplined. He has a fine mind but it is not girded up. He is like a man with a treasured Stradivarius violin that has never been put in tune. He has never taken time to sit down and tune that priceless instrument, therefore he gets no melody and harmony from it. I Call It Heresy! pp. 124-125"Lord, help me today to gird myself in the Holy Spirit's power; to discipline myself to faithful service; to gird my mind to excellence. As I wait upon You this morning, may my instrument be finely-tuned, with a melody and harmony that will be pleasing to You. Amen."

5. No Past At All !Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new. --2 Corinthians 5:17In our churches we often sing, "Arise, my soul, shake off thy guilty fears." But nothing happens and we keep our fears. Why do we claim on one hand that our sins are gone and on the other act just as though they are not gone?Brethren, we have been declared "Not Guilty!" by the highest court in all the universe. Still there are honest Christians, earnestly seeking the face of God, who cannot seem to break loose and find real freedom. The grave clothes trip them up every time they try to move on a little faster. Satan uses their past sins to terrify them.Now, on the basis of grace as taught in the Word of God, when God forgives a man, He trusts him as though he had never sinned. God did not have mental reservations about any of us when we became His children by faith. When God forgives a man, He doesn't think, 'I will have to watch this fellow because he has a bad record.' No, He starts with him again as though he had just been created and as if there had been no past at all! That is the basis of our Christian assurance--and God wants us to be happy in it. I Talk Back to the Devil, pp. 6-7"Thank You, Father, for that glorious freedom of forgiveness. Thank You for Your marvelous grace. No past at all! What a wonderful, incomprehensible truth! I humbly and joyfully worship You this morning. Amen."

6. Stop TinkeringThen she called the name of the Lord who spoke to her, You-Are-the-God-Who-Sees; for she said, 'Have I also here seen Him who sees me?' --Genesis 16:13Faith is the least self-regarding of the virtues. It is by its very nature scarcely conscious of its own existence. Like the eye which sees everything in front of it and never sees itself, faith is occupied with the Object upon which it rests and pays no attention to itself at all. While we are looking at God we do not see ourselves--blessed riddance. The man who has struggled to purify himself and has had nothing but repeated failures will experience real relief when he stops tinkering with his soul and looks away to the perfect One. While he looks at Christ, the very things he has so long been trying to do will be getting done within him. It will be God working in him to will and to do. . . .When we lift our inward eyes to gaze upon God we are sure to meet friendly eyes gazing back at us, for it is written that the eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout all the earth. The sweet language of experience is "Thou God seest me." When the eyes of the soul looking out meet the eyes of God looking in, heaven has begun right here on this earth. The Pursuit of God, 84-86."Keep my eyes fixed on You, Lord. Help me to stop tinkering and realize my total inability to change. I look to You to change me and give me victory as I focus on Your friendly eyes looking lovingly at me. Amen."

7. Quiet HeroesBlessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.... Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. --Matthew 5:5-8We have but to become acquainted with, or even listen to, the big names of our times to discover how wretchedly inferior most of them are. Many appear to have arrived at their present eminence by pull, brass, nerve, gall and lucky accident. We turn away from them sick to our stomach and wonder for a discouraged moment if this is the best the human race can produce. But we gain our self-possession again by the simple expedient of recalling some of the plain men we know, who live unheralded and unsung, and who are made of stuff infinitely finer than the hoarse-voiced braggarts who occupy too many of the highest offices in the land. . . . . . . the church also suffers from this evil notion. Christians have fallen into the habit of accepting the noisiest and most notorious among them as the best and the greatest. They too have learned to equate popularity with excellence, and in open defiance of the Sermon on the Mount they have given their approval not to the meek but to the self-assertive; not to the mourner but to the self-assured; not to the pure in heart who see God but to the publicity hunter who seeks headlines. Man: The Dwelling Place of God, 96-97."Lord, I thank You this morning for all the unknown but faithful pastors serving churches in quiet places. We do place a lot of emphasis on the 'personalities' and big-church leaders. Thank You for the 'quiet heroes' and their faithful service; give them great encouragement today. Amen."

8. The Carnal Desire to Make GoodFor we do not preach ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord, and ourselves your bondservants for Jesus' sake. --2 Corinthians 4:5Our Lord died an apparent failure, discredited by the leaders of established religion, rejected by society and forsaken by His friends. The man who ordered Him to the cross was the successful statesman whose hand the ambitious hack politician kissed. It took the resurrection to demonstrate how gloriously Christ had triumphed and how tragically the governor had failed.Yet today the professed church seems to have learned nothing. We are still seeing as men see and judging after the manner of man's judgment. How much eager-beaver religious work is done out of a carnal desire to make good. How many hours of prayer are wasted beseeching God to bless projects that are geared to the glorification of little men. How much sacred money is poured out upon men who, in spite of their tear-in-the-voice appeals, nevertheless seek only to make a fair show in the flesh.The true Christian should turn away from all this. Especially should ministers of the gospel search their own hearts and look deep into their inner motives. No man is worthy to succeed until he is willing to fail. No man is morally worthy of success in religious activities until he is willing that the honor of succeeding should go to another if God so wills. Born After Midnight, 58."As one called to lead people to honor and worship the Almighty God, I recognize that personal pride and self-glorification are so despicable. Yet if I were honest, I would probably have to admit that I struggle with pride more than any other sin. Deliver me, Lord, I pray. For Jesus' sake, Amen."

9. The Passion for PublicityFor neither at any time did we use flattering words, as you know, nor a cloak for covetousness-God is witness. Nor did we seek glory from men, either from you or from others, when we might have made demands as apostles of Christ. --1 Thessalonians 2:5-6If this is a fairly accurate view of things, what can we say then when Christian men vie with one another for place and position? What can we answer when we see them hungrily seeking for praise and honor? How can we excuse that passion for publicity which is so glaringly evident among Christian leaders? What about political ambition in Church circles? What about the fevered palm that is stretched out for more and bigger "love offerings"? What about the shameless egotism among Christians? How can we explain the gross man-worship that habitually blows up one and another popular leader to the size of a colossus? What about the obsequious hand kissing of moneyed men by those purporting to be sound preachers of the gospel?There is only one answer to these questions; it is simply that in these manifestations we see the world and nothing but the world. No passionate profession of love for 'souls' can change evil into good. These are the very sins that crucified Jesus. The Pursuit of Man, 126."Deliver me, O God, from this insidious trap. Give me a humble spirit, willing to serve You faithfully, however obscure might be my service. Amen."

10. The Scramble for PopularityBlessed are you when they revile and persecute you, and say all kinds of evil against you falsely for My sake. Rejoice and be exceedingly glad, for great is your reward in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you. --Matthew 5:11-12Popular Judaism slew the prophets and crucified Christ. Popular Christianity killed the Reformers, jailed the Quakers and drove John Wesley into the streets. When it comes to religion, the crowds are always wrong. At any time there are a few who see, and the rest are blinded. To stand by the truth of God against the current religious vogue is always unpopular and may be downright dangerous.... Christianity's scramble for popularity today is an unconscious acknowledgment of spiritual decline. Her eager fawning at the feet of the world's great is a grief to the Holy Spirit and an embarrassment to the sons of God. The lick-spittle attitude of popular Christian leaders toward the world's celebrities would make such men as Elijah or George Fox sick to the stomach....Lot was a popular believer. He sat in the gates of Sodom. But when trouble struck, he had to send quick for Abraham to get him out of the jam. And where did they find Abraham? Out on the hillside, far away from the fashionable crowds. It has always been so. For every Elijah there have always been 400 popular prophets of Baal. For every Noah there is always a vast multitude who will not believe it is going to rain.We are sent to bless the world, but never are we told to compromise with it. The Next Chapter After the Last, 20-21."Lord, give me the spirit of Elijah; give me the faith of Noah. Deliver me from the scramble for popularity and strengthen me to serve alone, oblivious to the roar of the crowds. Amen."

11. The Small and the Great..Yes, all of you be submissive to one another, and be clothed with humility, for "God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble." --1 Peter 5:5Some time ago we heard a short address by a young preacher during which he quoted the following, "If you are too big for a little place, you are too little for a big place."It is an odd rule of the kingdom of God that when we try to get big, we always get smaller by the moment. God is jealous of His glory and will not allow anyone to share it with Him. The effort to appear great will bring the displeasure of God upon us and effectively prevent us from achieving the greatness after which we pant.Humility pleases God wherever it is found, and the humble person will have God for his or her friend and helper always. Only the humble are completely sane, for they are the only ones who see clearly their own size and limitations. Egotists see things out of focus. To themselves they are large and God is correspondingly small, and that is a kind of moral insanity. This World: Playground or Battleground?, 34."Lord, help me never to be too big for a little place. In humility let me serve and revel in You as my 'friend and helper always.' Amen."

12. True Service..not with eyeservice, as men-pleasers, but in sincerity of heart, fearing God. And whatever you do, do it heartily, as to the Lord and not to men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the reward of the inheritance; for you serve the Lord Christ. -Colossians 3:22-24Any serious-minded Christian may at some time find himself wondering whether the service he is giving to God is the best it could be. He may even have times of doubting, and fear that his toil is fruitless and his life empty....The church has marked out certain work and approved it as service acceptable to God, and for the most part the church has been right. But it should be kept in mind that it is not the kind or quantity of work that makes it true service-it is the quality. Before the judgment seat of Christ, very little will be heard of numbers or size; moral quality is about all that will matter then....It would be a shock to most of us to learn just what God thinks of our breathless activity, and a greater shock to many to find out the true quality of our service as God sees it. For not all religious activity is accepted of God, not even when it appears to produce results and get things done. The Lord seeth not as man seeth....In Christian service motive is everything, for it is motive that gives to every moral act its final quality. The Next Chapter After the Last, 69-70."Lord, I need that reminder: 'Before the judgment seat of Christ, very little will be heard of numbers or size; moral quality is about all that will matter then.' I'll serve today with that in mind. Amen."

13. True GreatnessYet it shall not be so among you; but whoever desires to become great among you, let him be your servant. And whoever desires to be first among you, let him be your slave. --Matthew 20:26-27The essence of His teaching is that true greatness lies in character, not in ability or position. Men in their blindness had always thought that superior talents made a man great, and so the vast majority believes today. To be endowed with unusual abilities in the field of art or literature or music or statecraft, for instance, is thought to be in itself an evidence of greatness, and the man thus endowed is hailed as a great man. Christ taught, and by His life demonstrated, that greatness lies deeper....While a few philosophers and religionists of pre-Christian times had seen the fallacy in man's idea of greatness and had exposed it, it was Christ who located true greatness and showed how it could be attained. 'Whosoever will be great among you, let him be your minister; and whosoever will be chief among you, let him be your servant.' It is that simple and that easy--and that difficult. Born After Midnight, 50."Lord, this truth is indeed contrary to the philosophy of the world-which the church has unfortunately bought into. Stimulate my heart this morning to desire this true greatness-for Your glory. Amen."

14. Size Matters LittleAnd He said to them, "You are those who justify yourselves before men, but God knows your hearts. For what is highly esteemed among men is an abomination in the sight of God." --Luke 16:15To God quality is vastly important and size matters little. When set in opposition to size, quality is everything and size nothing....Man's moral fall has clouded his vision, confused his thinking and rendered him subject to delusion. One evidence of this is his all but incurable proneness to confuse values and put size before quality in his appraisal of things. The Christian faith reverses this order, but even Christians tend to judge things by the old Adamic rule. How big? How much? and How many? are the questions oftenest asked by religious persons when trying to evaluate Christian things....The Church is dedicated to things that matter. Quality matters. Let's not be led astray by the size of things. Born After Midnight, 72-73,75."Have we completely forgotten this, Lord, that 'quality is everything and size nothing'? Encourage all those pastors who are discouraged today because they don't match up to the 'success' of the big churches. Amen."

15. Quantity Rather Than QualityBut as we have been approved by God to be entrusted with the gospel, even so we speak, not as pleasing men, but God who tests our hearts. For neither at any time did we use flattering words, as you know, nor a cloak for covetousness-God is witness. --1 Thessalonians 2:4-5Time may show that one of the greatest weaknesses in our modern civilization has been the acceptance of quantity rather than quality as the goal after which to strive....Christianity is resting under the blight of degraded values. And it all stems from a too-eager desire to impress, to gain fleeting attention, to appear well in comparison with some world-beater who happens for the time to have the ear or the eye of the public.This is so foreign to the Scriptures that we wonder how Bible-loving Christians can be deceived by it. The Word of God ignores size and quantity and lays all its stress upon quality. Christ, more than any other man, was followed by the crowds, yet after giving them such help as they were able to receive, He quietly turned from them and deposited His enduring truths in the breasts of His chosen 12....Pastors and churches in our hectic times are harassed by the temptation to seek size at any cost and to secure by inflation what they cannot gain by legitimate growth. The mixed multitude cries for quantity and will not forgive a minister who insists upon solid values and permanence. Many a man of God is being subjected to cruel pressure by the ill-taught members of his flock who scorn his slow methods and demand quick results and a popular following regardless of quality. The Next Chapter After the Last, 7-8."Lord, I'm concerned this morning for pastors who are huge successes in Your eyes-because of their faithful, quality-oriented service-but who see themselves as failures because the 'quantity' doesn't seem to come. Open our eyes, Lord, to evaluate our success or failure by Your standards, and be encouraged. Amen."

16. One Test Today: SuccessFor we are not, as so many, peddling the word of God; but as of sincerity, but as from God, we speak in the sight of God in Christ. --2 Corinthians 2:17Much that passes for Christianity today is the brief bright effort of the severed branch to bring forth its fruit in its season. But the deep laws of life are against it. Preoccupation with appearances and a corresponding neglect of the out-of-sight root of the true spiritual life are prophetic signs which go unheeded. Immediate 'results' are all that matter, quick proofs of present success without a thought of next week or next year. Religious pragmatism is running wild among the orthodox. Truth is whatever works. If it gets results it is good. There is but one test for the religious leader: success. Everything is forgiven him except failure.A tree can weather almost any storm if its root is sound, but when the fig tree which our Lord cursed "dried up from the roots" it immediately "withered away." A church that is soundly rooted cannot be destroyed, but nothing can save a church whose root is dried up. No stimulation, no advertising campaigns, no gifts of money and no beautiful edifice can bring back life to the rootless tree. The Root of the Righteous, 4-5."Lord, give us solid roots. Forgive us for our preoccupation with success and move in Your church today to restore to us a proper perspective. Begin in my life and church, I pray. Amen."

17. Our Dowry of EverlastingnessAs for man, his days are like grass; as a flower of the field, so he flourishes. For the wind passes over it, and it is gone, and its place remembers it no more. But the mercy of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting on those who fear Him, and His righteousness to children's children. --Psalm 103:15-17We who follow Christ are men and women of eternity. We must put no confidence in the passing scenes of the disappearing world. We must resist every attempt of Satan to palm off upon us the values that belong to mortality. Nothing less than forever is long enough for us. We view with amused sadness the frenetic scramble of the world to gain a brief moment in the sun. 'The book of the month,' for instance, has a strange sound to one who has dwelt with God and taken his values from the Ancient of Days. 'The man of the year' cannot impress those men and women who are making their plans for that long eternity when days and years have passed away and time is no more.The church must claim again her ancient dowry of everlastingness. She must begin again to deal with ages and millenniums rather than with days and years. She must not count numbers but test foundations. She must work for permanence rather than for appearance. Her children must seek those enduring things that have been touched with immortality. The shallow brook of popular religion chatters on its nervous way and thinks the ocean too quiet and dull because it lies deep in its mighty bed and is unaffected by the latest shower. The Next Chapter After the Last, 9."Oh Lord, remind me constantly of this eternal perspective. Surely the temptation to seek the fleeting 'success' of the world (and the church!) would fade if I kept this always before me. Amen."

18. Greatness Has Its PriceYou therefore must endure hardship as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. No one engaged in warfare entangles himself with the affairs of this life, that he may please him who enlisted him as a soldier. --2 Timothy 2:3-4The laws of success operate also in the higher field of the soul--spiritual greatness has its price. Eminence in the things of the Spirit demands a devotion to these things more complete than most of us are willing to give. But the law cannot be escaped. If we would be holy we know the way; the law of holy living is before us. The prophets of the Old Testament, the apostles of the New and, more than all, the sublime teachings of Christ are there to tell us how to succeed....The amount of loafing practiced by the average Christian in spiritual things would ruin a concert pianist if he allowed himself to do the same thing in the field of music. The idle puttering around that we see in church circles would end the career of a big league pitcher in one week. No scientist could solve his exacting problem if he took as little interest in it as the rank and file of Christians take in the art of being holy. The nation whose soldiers were as soft and undisciplined as the soldiers of the churches would be conquered by the first enemy that attacked it. Triumphs are not won by men in easy chairs. Success is costly. We Travel an Appointed Way, 26."This success may be costly, Lord, but surely nothing in the light of the eternal perspective we looked at yesterday. Give me willingness this morning to pay any cost which You may exact in my service for You. Amen."

19. Faith Dares to FailTherefore judge nothing before the time, until the Lord comes, who will both bring to light the hidden things of darkness and reveal the counsels of the hearts. Then each one's praise will come from God. --1 Corinthians 4:5God may allow His servant to succeed when He has disciplined him to a point where he does not need to succeed to be happy. The man who is elated by success and cast down by failure is still a carnal man. At best his fruit will have a worm in it. God will allow His servant to succeed when he has learned that success does not make him dearer to God nor more valuable in the total scheme of things. We cannot buy God's favor with crowds or converts or new missionaries sent out or Bibles distributed. All these things can be accomplished without the help of the Holy Spirit. A good personality and a shrewd knowledge of human nature is all that any man needs to be a success in religious circles today....We can afford to follow Him to failure. Faith dares to fail. The resurrection and the judgment will demonstrate before all worlds who won and who lost. We can wait. Born After Midnight, 59."Father, keep me faithful today. I don't need to succeed in the world's eyes; I'll wait. Amen."

20. Godliness Is Not ValuedI have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Finally, there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will give to me on that Day.... --2 Timothy 4:7-8After more than thirty years of observing the religious scene I have been forced to conclude that saintliness and church leadership are not often synonymous....Were the church a pure and Spirit-filled body, wholly led and directed by spiritual considerations, certainly the purest and the saintliest men and women would be the ones most appreciated and most honored; but the opposite is true. Godliness is no longer valued, except for the very old or the very dead. The saintly souls are forgotten in the whirl of religious activity. The noisy, the self-assertive, the entertaining are sought after and rewarded in every way, with gifts, crowds, offerings and publicity. The Christlike, the self-forgetting, the other-worldly are jostled aside to make room for the latest converted playboy who is usually not too well converted and still very much of a playboy....The wise Christian will be content to wait for that day. In the meantime, he will serve his generation in the will of God. If he should be overlooked in the religious popularity contests he will give it but small attention. He knows whom he is trying to please and he is willing to let the world think what it will of him. He will not be around much longer anyway, and where he is going men will be known not by their Hooper rating but by the holiness of their character. Man: The Dwelling Place of God, 97-99."What a sad statement, Lord, that 'saintliness and church leadership are not often synonymous.' Again we're forced to recognize that if we serve You as You want, we may have to wait for recognition. Help me today to focus on 'holiness of...character' whether I'm valued by people or not. Amen."