E.11: How Failure Is a Step in the Right Direction
Season 1: Episode 11
How Failure Is a Step in the Right Direction
Get the Podcast Playbook, to accompany the podcast here. Filled with devotionals, checklists, questionnaires and more:
In this episode you will learn:
How Naomi changed the narrative of her life
How Ruth moved out of social welfare into the top of society
How Non-Traditional Breakthrough may be what you need
Episode length: 10:57
Transcript
I failed a lot like a lot, a lot like painful, difficult tears and snot running down my face a lot. And even then, I kept my mantra to always keep learning, especially when things were tough.
On today's podcast. I'm going to show you why failure is a step in the right direction and may even end up being the breakthrough that you need. These are tips that you can start right now so you can move toward those gods size dreams in bite size chunks.
Hello and welcome to the podcast God size dreams in bite size chunks. I'm your host, Angela Meer. So let's get ready to be energized, inspired and activated in our God size dreams.
Hello and welcome to another episode today. We're gonna talk about one of my favorites from the Bible. Ruth. When I was in seminary, I fell in love with this short book, mainly because it was all about the faith of several women who had walked through a lot of failure.
Naomi
Let's start with the failure of Naomi. Now, As you recall from Ruth, Chapter one, she left the place of bread and ended up losing her whole family. Now Naomi left this place called Bethel, which means the place of bread during famine. And when she did that, she went to Moab, which means God's wash pot. By choosing to go to Moab, which was a place where there was a lot of idol worship and wasn't her countrymen. She ended up in this situation that was really difficult.
Maybe you can relate. Maybe you went through a spurt where you went into the world and you decided to do it the world's way. And because you went through all the difficulty of going through things in the world's way, you really, really, really learned what failure can do to you. It can really often times cause your spirit man to want to rise up and move out of that place. That's causing you so much hurt and so much pain. That's what happened with Naomi.
She eventually came back, and she had learned a lot of lessons along the way. One of those lessons is that you always stay in the favor and in the light of the Lord now, sometimes we may go through really difficult times, but by clinging to our faith like Naomi did and coming back to the things that are important to us. A lot of times that failure can be the very thing that we need to break through and to see what God wants us to do.
I have so many friends who have come out of the world and their God-size dream was found in that place.
I have friends who were involved in sex trafficking, and now they're working in sex trafficking to make sure that girls are being kept safe from that aspect of things. I have people who were in the world as drug addicts, and now they work with drug addicts to make sure that drug addicts are coming out of that mentality and out of that way of life.
You know, don't look at your failure of spending time in the world as failure. Look, it is a thing that you can move and grow beyond. God is always willing to take our failure and turn it into something incredible and often times. That's what he's doing when we're moving out of the world.
Mustard Seed Academy
The Mustard Seed Academy is a school for people just like you. Perhaps you want to find out your unique God sized dream. Or maybe you already know what God wants you to do. You just don't know how to do it or get started. In the mustard Seed academy. I take you by the hand, and coaches were your own personal, God sized dream. In this online course, you will learn how to develop your skills into a business ministry or nonprofit. You will gain the skills to get clear on your goals. Build a team and take actionable steps forward. Join us at the Mustard Seed Academy and grow your confidence to take on your own God sized dream. To learn more go to www.angelameer.com. See you there.
Ruth
Another person in the book of Ruth who really was able to take her failure and turn it around was Ruth, Of course, Ruth, You know, when she married Boaz, that was her second husband. So her failure included, You know, the loss of a husband and a homeland. Now that isn't traditional failure. In the sense of these are things that happened to her that she couldn't have foreseen. These are things that that she went through. But a lot of times they have the same repercussions were going through these difficult things, and we just feel like our life looks like a failure. Like oh my goodness, why can't my life look the way it's supposed to look, I'm doing the things I'm supposed to be doing. I'm going after the things I'm supposed to be going after, and yet my life looks like a mess.
The cool thing about Ruth’s life, though, is that even though she lost her husband, she was able to see the people in her life who were gonna lead her back to the light. And for Ruth, that was Naomi.
And she has this beautiful speech and in Chapter one and Chapter two of Ruth, where she talks about leaving her country and clinging to Naomi and clinging to her. A lot of times when we're going through a really difficult things, like grieving the loss of a husband or or the things that she did by leaving her own country behind.
When we're going through those really rough patches, it's by clinging to the people around us who have the light. We're going after the things of God that can really be a saving grace to us. Even when Ruth finally got to Bethel, when she finally came back to the homeland, Naomi's homeland they were at a point of social welfare. You know, we see this when she was picking up The wheat in Boaz is field, and this was a type of social welfare that they used back then. And perhaps that's something No, believe me when I say I understand what it's like to come from poverty, it's an incredibly difficult time and a lot of times our friends and family. I just totally understand the challenge. It is to have to go to Social Well, for our do not have money in our life. It's incredibly challenging, especially if we wanna have a God sized dream.
But see, here's the cool thing about Ruth is that she kept on keeping on, even though she knew that this was very difficult. And here at the end of this book, you all know the end of the Book of Ruth. Ruth actually was able to meet a man who brought her up from from obscurity all the way up to some of the highest echelons in her city. Her husband was a well known man in the city, and he had a lot of wealth, which meant that Ruth ended up being able to be an amazing resource to people all around her.
Maybe your God sized dream comes from being in social welfare. Maybe you know what it's like to be the single mom. Maybe you know what it's like to be the person who has to go down to the office and say, I don't have enough food to feed my family. Maybe you know what that's like. And because you know what that's like, your God sized dream might leap up out of it. You never know how the Lord will use your story and use your testimony to meet and to fulfill the desires of other people. You have a light in you that God wants you to shine.
Who is your Naomi? Who is your Ruth?
So make sure if you've been like Ruth and you've come out of this type of failure, make sure that you use this and for the Lord's sake, because he has a god sized dream for you.
Non-Traditional Breakthrough
Finally, there is a third place where failure is taking care of in the Book of Ruth. And that is when Ruth broke through in a non traditional way. See, a really interesting thing happens at the end of Ruth, and that is that Naomi tells Ruth. You need to go in to Boaz is room and you need to sleep at the end of his bed. And when he wakes up, you need to ask him to be your kinsman Redeemer.
Basically, what that means is that she needed a husband to take care of her. She needed someone to protect her. What a challenging thing to do! Have you ever really thought about what Naomi was asking, Ruth to do by sneaking into this man's room and sleeping at the base of his bed? This is a very nontraditional way to get a husband, and I think it's an awesome example of how often times breakthrough comes in nontraditional ways.
Perhaps you've been in failure for a long time, and you just can't seem to figure out how to break through. And you've prayed and you've prayed and you've asked and you've asked.
Perhaps God has a nontraditional answer for you that you haven't opened yourself up to yet. What is the nontraditional answer that God has for you?
I'm not saying to go sneak into somewhat special room. Please don't do that. But there perhaps maybe a modern day interpretation of a non traditional way of getting out of your failure. Spend some time with the Lord this week and see what he has to say because I think he has an answer for you that you haven't even thought of yet.
Sometimes failure is the way that God shows us that it is our tradition that we're cleaning to and not his ways or the word of God. At the podcast playbook, you confined an inventory so you can take stock of what God is doing in your vulnerable places of failure. Find the podcast playbook at AngelaMeer.com. I love and appreciate you all. until next time. This is Angela Meer helping you achieve God size dreams in bite size chunks.