What If I Fall? 2 Steps to Beat Your Fear of Failure

A teen girl steps up to the microphone.

Her family and friends watch, waiting for the moment when she’ll open her mouth and wow the judges. They all know she has the talent to achieve success with her singing voice.

But as she looks out at the audience, her eyes go wide. She freezes.

This scene is a familiar one in movies, probably so often portrayed because it’s a common scene in life, too. Talented teens are not the only ones who fall prey to fear under such circumstances.

In my own life, I can have the same thing happen with public speaking or facing extroverted situations as an introvert. I even face the same potential freeze-up when I start a new writing project.

Tied up in the causes of such moments is a basic, common fear—the fear of failure.

Recently, I’ve learned about an approach some people use to reduce the fear of failure. They attempt to eliminate the fear by redefining failure as something good.

I’ve heard of parents leading their children in a celebration of failure, encouraging their kids to share their failures every day, and those failures are then applauded as if they instead are successes.

But the Bible doesn’t encourage us to celebrate failure. Quite the opposite. Jesus says,

You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect. – Matthew 5:48

Failure only exists because of our fall into sin and because we still live in that fallen world. Fallenness is definitely not something to celebrate. Yet, we also know that fear is a sin. Fearing failure, then, isn’t good either.

So how do we avoid following our culture’s penchant for calling bad things good and still beat our fear of failure? The following two steps are the key.

2 STEPS TO BEAT FEAR OF FAILURE

1. EMBRACE GOD’S DEFINITION OF SUCCESS

No, we shouldn’t redefine bad things as good, but we should align our understanding of success and failure with God’s definitions.

God directs the Apostle Paul to touch on this idea of failure and success when he writes,

Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own. Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. – Philippians 3:12-14

Paul admits to not yet being perfect. He doesn’t celebrate his failure to be so, but he also doesn’t freeze up in fear. Instead, he keeps his eyes on God’s call and keeps going, keeps trying, keeps straining for the prize God has in store for Him—a great part of which will be fully realizing perfection at last.

That true success is what Paul refers to when, at the end of his life, he reflects,

I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Henceforth there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will award to me on that day, and not only to me but also to all who have loved his appearing. – 2 Timothy 4:7-8

Fighting the good fight, finishing the race, keeping the faith. This is success in God’s eyes.

We see this truth in all of Scripture. Noah, Abraham, Moses, and on and on. They had faith in God and demonstrated that faith by acting in obedience to Him.

Success, then, is faith in God, reflected in our obedience. And the great news is that we aren’t responsible for attaining this measure of success ourselves. Even the faith that enables our obedience is a gift from God (Eph. 2:8) and is perfected by Jesus (Heb. 12:2).

The burden is off our shoulders as we strain forward toward true success. We don’t need to worry about the results of any effort, which we can’t control anyway.

We need only focus on fighting the good fight, knowing God will supply all we need to persevere in faith and obedience—to achieve success instead of failure.

Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith… – Hebrews 12:1-2a

2. TRUST GOD TO REDEEM OUR FAILURE

Like our understanding of success, the way we define failure rarely seems to match God’s definition.

If success is living in faith and obedience, then real failure comes when we reject God and living in accordance with His commands.

Failure happens when we sin. Failure happens if we give up the good fight.

I’ve noticed how fear of failure becomes a sort of self-fulfilling prophesy. Like the young singer in the story at the start of this post, our fear of failure often causes the very failure we fear.

But God has a different prophesy for us. His prophesy about failure is a determined truth that has and will happen—no “maybe” about it.

But when Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God, waiting from that time until his enemies should be made a footstool for his feet. For by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified. – Hebrews 10:12-14

We will be perfected! No more failure. Those of us who belong to Christ are being sanctified right now, bit by bit, being made perfect through Christ’s sacrifice of Himself for us.

Despite our failings, despite not yet having attained perfection, we have this guarantee that we will be made perfect in the end.

And those things we call failures and fear so much—those poor performances, bombed business deals, flubbed conversations, or projects that fall short of our goals and dreams—those failures will be forgotten and swallowed up in the success of true victory.

Those failures, too, will be used for our good as those who love God and are called by Him (Rom. 8:28).

Someday, we as Christians will taste perfection, and it will be beyond our wildest dreams.

Until then, we need not fear failures of any kind because we know success and perfection are guaranteed for us in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Are you afraid of failure? Has the truth in this post or biblical truth you’ve encountered elsewhere helped you fight or conquer that fear? Please share!

Photos by Martin Sanchez, Daniela Holzer, Sarah Kilian, and Nong Vang on Unsplash. Original graphics designed by Jerusha Agen.