Read Psalm 73:26

“My flesh and my heart faileth:

but God is the strength of my heart,

and my portion forever.”

Failure.

For some, including myself, just the word invokes feelings of fear! 

Failure can be defined as a lack of success, inability to meet an expectation, giving way or fracturing under stress, falling short. Have you ever fallen short? Really wanted to do a good job at something, but found yourself unable to “pull it off”? How about expectations – your own or those others have of you? Ever been unable to meet the expectation? Like actually unable – no matter how hard you worked, or tried to explain yourself, your decision or performance just didn’t meet the expectation.

And then there’s stress… life ever been stressful? Like these past few years maybe? Have you felt like you are “giving way, fracturing under stress?” – that definition really resonated with me. I often call it “falling apart”, because to me, that’s how it feels. I can recall, in the spring of 2020, with my whole world seemingly crashing down around me, my flesh and my heart feeling like they were literally failing me. I had just been through the initial phases of pandemic planning in my new role in healthcare, and was battling opposing viewpoints from family, friends, and coworkers. Even my own viewpoints seemed at war with each other, as I could see “both sides” of every issue we were trying to navigate.

I was discussing a few particularly stressful encounters with my husband – part venting, part trying to make sense of it all – when the symptoms set in. Dizziness, nausea, heart pounding, shortness of breath… and eventually, feeling disconnected from my body and losing control – literally like I was falling apart. I later learned this was a panic attack – caused in part by unmanaged (aka high functioning) anxiety, and the lack of personal control over my emotional and spiritual well-being. And, guess what?

I started to heal from all of this when I began to learn how to make GOD the strength of my heart. This verse tells us that our flesh and our hearts WILL fail us…. it’s not a matter of IF but WHEN. We all are fallen creatures, made in God’s image, but broken by sin. On our own, we will consistently fail to meet expectations, and fall short. But if we align ourselves with God through faith in His son Jesus, we can trust Him to be the strength of our heart, and to be our portion – our inheritance, source of security, and our hope.

Friend, when you feel like you are failing, don’t fear. Fall into the arms of Jesus, and let Him carry you. He will be your strength.

What is your relationship with failure? In what way do you need to align yourself with God? How can you direct others to the arms of Jesus as well?

Rachel Franks