Devotionals for the Heart: Defeat

A Beautiful Defeat
A devotional by Mirachelle Canada

“He existed before anything else, and he holds all creation together. Christ is also the head of the church, which is his body. He is the beginning, supreme over all who rise from the dead. So he is first in everything. For God in all his fullness was pleased to live in Christ, and through him God reconciled everything to himself. He made peace with everything in heaven and on earth by means of Christ’s blood on the cross.” 

– Colossians 1:17-20 (NLT)

Why are we afraid to fail in front of others?

Recently, I found myself in a situation where the fear of failure stalked me.

It began during a lunch break at teacher conference a few days before the start of school. I had received an email message with evidence that I had relayed wrong information to a parent. I had thought a glitch in our new registration system was the culprit, which would have been easy to fix, but the harsh reality was I had made the mistake. It had occurred months previous to this, when a grade point average minimum policy removed the student and I had missed officially informing the parent.

To make matters worse, I was nowhere I could call the parent or talk to my colleagues in person. The only alternative was to email them with the news, but it was late in the day so I knew I wouldn’t hear anything back until morning. That night as I lay in bed, I played out every scenario in my mind: From my boss’s condescending lecture, to the look of disappointment on the head of counseling’s face, and the yells of anger spewing from the parent on the phone.

I was in mental hell, wrapped in steal blankets of imagined humiliation and defeat. I prayed but felt nothing. No peace. No alternative answer. No way out.

That morning, I resolved to call the parent immediately, then to face my boss and so on. In the parking lot I sought God. His question rose, “Are you done striving in your own defeat?” I surrendered everything over to him. “Now that you have placed me between you and the world, I can fix this,” He replied, then prompted me to text my church life group and ask them to pray for me. After they positively replied, I went into work feeling unburdened.

A half hour later, after I had told the parent the truth, I waited for the yelling, but it never came. Instead I was met with a calm voice of understanding and acceptance. Afterward, my sense of failure washed away on a morning tide of forgiveness. I opened my email anticipating my boss’s curt response, but my inbox was empty. My self-inflicted moments of anticipated humiliation dissipated like a vapor. The outcome of my failure was nothing I had imagined it. I’d been ready to face my failure and defeat but had forgotten that His cross had already done it for me.

So often we forget the power of the cross. We get comfortable among the world when things are going right and seek to fix our problems with the world by our own actions and words when they aren’t. Then we wonder why we are tormented by the spirits of humiliation, anger, and fear of failure.

God is the ultimate overcomer, but He is also a gentleman, which is why His word tells us to ask of Him. When we ask Him for help and surrender our situation to Him, we place the power of the cross and His blood between ourselves and the world.

As we lay everything down at His feet the tormentors are ceased, and the battle is won by our Savior through the victory of His blood that He shed for us. He washes us clean once again and lifts us back up rich in hope and acceptance.

We are made humbled and reconciled, but it is a beautiful defeat wrapped in the freedom of His love as we face the world again; this time, with His cross before us.

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Author Bio:

Mirachelle Canada is a writer, playwright, screenwriter and theatre director/producer from Northern Virginia. She teaches television production at C.D. Hylton Senior High School. 

She earned her Master of Fine Arts in Script & Screenwriting from Regent University and is a member of Act One: Hollywood Film & Television Writing Program, American Christian Fiction Writers (ACFW), ACFW Virginia Chapter, The Jerry Jenkins Writers Guild, and Your Novel Blueprint.

Mirachelle is passionate about awakening creativity and the gifts of God in everyone. She is currently working on her first historical fiction novel set during WWII, inspired by her time studying theatre education in London, England.

In her spare time, she also writes and directs Christmas and Easter passion plays at Christ Chapel Assembly of God in Woodbridge, Va.

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Connect with Mirachelle:
Website: www.mirachellecanada.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/mirachellecanada/
Instagram: https://instagram.com/mirachelle77/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/miracan