To succeed in anything, one must put forth effort, usually maximum effort.   Most of the time, we reap what we sow.  If you sow little, you will reap little.

Too many people fail in certain areas of life because they are paralyzed by fear.  They allow fear to stop them from even trying to succeed.  Take personal evangelism for example.   Many Christians do not engage in personal evangelism because they are afraid that they will fail.   This fear of failing affects many different aspects of Christianity.  Everything, from brethren serving in the public assemblings of the local church, to approaching a brother or sister in Christ to be reconciled, has been avoided because of fear.

The nature of the gospel is such that as Christians we do not have to fear anything, especially failing.  The gospel of Christ gives us the freedom to fail without putting our eternal reward in jeopardy.

The greatest failure we can ever experience is giving in to sin.  However, because of the gracious character of our God and the merciful nature of the gospel, we can always overcome the sins that we commit.  Regarding sin, we do this by repenting and praying to God.  Do you remember what Peter told Simon when he failed to please God by sinning?

Acts 8:22 (ESV)
²² Repent, therefore, of this wickedness of yours, and pray to the Lord that, if possible, the intent of your heart may be forgiven you.

When we do this after we sin, the possibility of being forgiven turns into a certainty.

1 John 1:9 (ESV)
⁹ If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

This cleansing is accomplished by the blood of Christ (1 John 1:7) and is activated in our lives when we repent of our sins and confess them to God.

So, when I say we have the freedom to fail, I am not trying to imply that failing is okay or that sinning against God is perfectly fine.  No, we should do everything we can never to sin.  We have the freedom to sin only from the standpoint that if we do, we can recover thanks to the grace of God and the blood and advocacy of Christ.  John put it like this:

1 John 2:1–2 (ESV)
¹ My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. ² He is the propitiation for our sins… 

The truth is, God does not expect us to be perfect.  He knows, not just regarding sin, but also in our overall service to Him, that we sometimes are going to fail.  When it comes to our service to God, He is more interested in effort than He is in the results.  Realizing this will give us the courage to serve God the best we can without being paralyzed by the fear of failing.  Since effort is what really matters to God, we cannot fail if we are being active in service to Him.  The only way we can fail in doing the Lord’s work is by doing nothing.

 As you wind down for the night, think about these things.