let's talk about that feeling, where you have been putting in effort, being obedient, trying and trying again, being consistent, and yet nothing seems to be working. I truly believe that this is one of the hardest seasons to be in because it's one thing to be in a season where you are either intentionally or unintentionally being. Disobedient to what God is calling you to do and therefore making progress along that path. That's one thing. But when you are in a season of trying and putting in effort and obeying what God is calling you to do, no matter how big, how small, little step, big step, whatever that looks like, you're just trying. You're attempting, but yet you don't see any results. Maybe it's been a month. Of you being in that season? Maybe it's been a year. You know what? Maybe it's been 10 years and you're just like what are you doing? Why does it seem like me obeying what you're calling me to do? Me going in the direction that I truly believe that you're calling me to? Why does it seem like I am failing? Such a tough season to be in it's a real feeling. You have a lot of questions there's a lot that you're not understanding. There are things that are not making sense. Because in our brains, in our spirits, we believe that if we do what God is calling us to do, if we pursue it full-heartedly, he will bless it. He will pave the way. He will shine a lamp to our steps. Everything will be okay. We believe that. But yet when we go about it and we find ourselves feeling like we're constantly failing, constantly bumping into things, just not working. They're not working well, something's not right. There's always something that seems off. It is tough and it can really make you feel depressed. Let's be honest. Obeying God and finding joy in that, but then bumping into failure makes you feel depressed. It makes you question if you're even on the right path, and it makes you wonder if there's even a way out of this. Here's what I've learned. Anytime you are obeying in doing what God is calling you to do, but yet you feel like you're failing in it, my friend. That feeling is lying to you. Your human perspective is seeing this as failure. What we need to do is transition into our spiritual perspective. In seeing it as something completely different that just so happens to be falsely disguised as the failure that our human brains are seeing it as. That's how we comprehend it. What's really happening. Is that God is doing something. God doesn't call you to something just for you to fail and to fail again. And to fail again, and to feel hopeless, and to be in moments of despair and to be in this everlasting depression. No, that is false. And if you feel that, if you even think that, if you're questioning that, then we need to ask ourselves, am I leaning into the spirit? Or am I leaning into my human emotions and allowing the enemy to take that and deceive me with the human emotions that I'm feeling? What is God really doing and your calling and your aspirations in your endeavor that you feel like you're just failing in, but in actuality, God is doing something that you're just not quite seeing yet. So what could God be doing? I am never the one to give you a straight up correct answer as to what God is exactly doing in your life because that is something that he ultimately only knows. But what I can do, is give a variety of reasons as to what he might be trying to do in your life, in your calling that end up working out for good. Because he knows what's best. So if you've been feeling down, if you've been feeling hopeless, if you've been feeling like a failure, my friend, you are in the right place at the right time, and I'm so looking forward to chatting with you, having a conversation with you about this today. There are two areas of my life recently where I felt like I just kept bumping into failure. one of them was a launch in my business where I thought it was gonna do so well, and I just kept trying to pivot it and work on it and figure out what would simply just work. And it's been a year long process of me trying to figure out how to make this specific launch over this specific thing work, and it's been really tough to the point where I felt like I'm just failing at this. Do I need to give this up? Is this just not right? When deep down I knew that God was calling me to this and I just simply haven't found a pathway that works just yet On the other end, I felt like I was bumping into back to back moments of failure no matter what I did when it came to my emotional growth. To be transparent with you, that's something that I'm really working on in my life. I am extremely sensitive. I struggle in emotional management, and something that I'm learning is to steward my emotions better, so much to the point where I am. More emotionally wise through the spirit to the point where my emotional intelligence is just finally mastered. But every time I try, every time I attempt, it just seems like I keep failing or I can't get it right. And through these experiences, I've learned to change my perspective. From getting frustrated and feeling like I'm failing and feeling like I just can't get it right. What is wrong with me? To instead thinking, what could God be doing through these things, through these moments that feel like failure to me? What could he be doing that ultimately are gonna transform me for the better that are gonna work out for my ultimate good? and as I was preparing for this episode today, I came up with a few core things that God could be doing in your moments of failure. When you are just trying to obey what he is calling you to do. The first one is God could be testing. If you have the fruits of the spirit, now let's all get on the same page and just take a quick second to understand what the fruits of the spirit are. The fruits of the spirit is what is produced. It is the outcome. It is the result of you taking on the character of Jesus himself. You aren't just accepting Jesus as your Lord and Savior, you are living like Jesus. You are reflecting the character of God. And when you do, the fruits of the Spirit are emancipated out of you as a light for people to see, for you to feel for how you act So what are those fruits? There's nine of'em. Okay, we ready? Love, joy, peace, patient. Patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness. And self-control. I want you to take a moment to reflect on the words that I just said, the fruits of the spirit, and I want you to ask yourself, where am I falling short on any of these? This isn't a finger point because I believe we all fall short from time to time on at least one of these. Why? Because life can take us out. Chasing after a calling that God is calling us to is tough. reflecting these fruits of the spirit oftentimes can feel impossible even though they're not. Sometimes they can feel impossible when we're just going through it and when our minds are so clouded by the negative thoughts and insecurities and doubts and feelings of failure, that we are feeling heavily. So just ask yourself, where am I falling short? Because I've noticed a lot of times with Christians, people who say that they believe in God, they believe in Jesus, myself included. We say that we believe. We say that we're trying to live like Christ. But yet we're not taking the time to really focus and zero in on specific fruits of the spirit that we desperately need to work on. Sometimes we might think that we have them. We might think that we're fine. We might think that because God doesn't expect us to be perfect, that we don't need to work on perfecting the fruits of the spirit being emancipated out of us. Us. This is where we need to be careful because although yes, you will never be perfect. You will always be a work in progress. That doesn't mean that you shouldn't be putting in every effort, every effort to reflect the character of God in your life, and the outcome of that being the fruits of the spirit themselves. I have been tested in this greatly where I thought that I was kind, God had to test me where I thought that I was patient. God had to test me where I thought I had self-control. God had to test me, and I truly believe that in seasons where we feel like we're bumping into back to back moments of failure, especially when we're trying to be obedient and doing what God is calling us to do, a big reason for that could be. That God simply revealing the truth behind yourself. Do you really have the fruits of the spirit? Are they real rather than them being a facade? they lasting rather than them being temporary? I think a big one for us when we're pursuing our callings is patience. We struggle with patience because we just wanna get there. We just wanna achieve the dream, get the result. Finally feel an ounce of success, but that's the problem. It's in your timeline. It's not in God's because if it was in God's timeline, you would have more patience as you pursue what he's calling you to do. You wouldn't be so hard on yourself because you would realize that even though this might not seem to be working in the timeline, that you thought, you know that God has called you to this. So you are patient in believing his timeline, his when over that thing, over when it comes to fruition. I would encourage you. To look at the fruits of the spirit and genuinely study them. What do they mean? And take the time to pick one or two that you feel you are struggling with the most and intentionally work on it. When you do that, you pivot your focus from the chase of no longer being in failure, but getting to success. And instead you focus on. Developing more of the character of God in you through the season of your life. It's a different chase. One is chasing success in your calling. The other is chasing God within yourself. And I believe that when we learn to chase God. Within ourselves reflecting the character of God within ourselves. We will start to find more moments of things working of success happening within our callings, within what it is that we're pursuing. Another thing that God could be doing. If you feel like you're bumping into back-to-back moments of failure within your obedience, your consistency, your effort, your overall calling and ability in just trying God could be creating success for you elsewhere. You thought that chasing after your calling, the success of that, the outcome of that looked a specific way. It came in a specific package, but maybe God is bringing it to you in a different way, in a different package. You know that success means way more than money, more than status a lot of times we get into the habit of viewing success as just that. Around finances, around our status and how well we're doing publicly. It's more than that. Even around things like weight loss and looking our absolute best, it is way more than that. And I gotta check myself on that too, because a lot of times my brain will believe success is just that when it's not. So when you're focused on feeling like you failed in an area of your calling, that has to do with money or status in any degree, in any variation, you are dismissing other areas that could be succeeding. You're blind to it. You're not even seeing it because you're so caught up in the failure of trying to chase after that success, that specific kind of success in your calling. I'm gonna give you an example. What if in my case, instead of looking at. The launch that I was trying to figure out for the specific offer over the past year that didn't seem to be working no matter what I tried, even though I knew God was calling me to do this thing. what if instead of me viewing that as a failure and me not succeeding in that, what if I changed my perspective and started looking around other areas? Of my calling that were actually succeeding. This might take some meditation on your part where you really need to think through and dig deep because those successes might feel hidden to you or they might feel small in comparison to your big picture vision for your calling, for your business, for that creative thing that you wanna put out there. But the small hidden successes matter too. And maybe just maybe God has been trying to deliver these areas, these smaller areas of success for you that you have not been seeing because you're focused on these bigger areas that feel like failure. So if I reflect on that in the situation of the launch that I was referring to, there's many small successes. One is the skillset I learned just by creating it. I got so good at designing certain aspects. Of a launch. When it came to the tech, when it came to designing landing pages, when it came to having a visual eye, when it came to authenticity, I got so good at it and I wouldn't have gotten good. I would not have built that skillset and succeeded in that skillset had I not tried, had I not done what God was calling me to do. But I wasn't seeing those as successes. I was focused on the big picture vision of it, just not working, feeling like an ultimate failure. But I had to think about the little successes that were actually gained. And my visual eye is so good now. It's so skilled now. I truly believe this, and my visual eye is so good now that I have people asking me for advice when it comes to interior design, when it comes to graphic designs and social media designs and websites. And it just makes me reflect on, wow, God built that skillset in me from me trying to build this launch. That felt like a failure, but was it really? Was it? And then even the example. That I gave earlier in regards to me feeling like a failure in trying to become much more emotionally intelligent. What package of success did God bring my way from me? Obeying that. Well, even though it might feel like a failure, because I haven't necessarily mastered my reactions and responses to things I have mastered my awareness to when it comes up, rather than jumping right into emotionally reacting or responding to something. Like I used to. there's a step that is now coming before that where my brain is aware. My brain is saying, oh, angel, you're getting worked up. Angel, your emotions are coming out. Angel, this is starting to trigger you. Maybe let's step away. Maybe let's go for a walk. Maybe let's get on your knees and pray. That wasn't there before. So yeah, even though I still might react and respond emotionally immature in some regard, there's this first step of awareness that I've learned that is a little package of success, of, wow, you've mastered this area over here, you're doing great in. So these are just my examples, but I really want you to think about that for yourself. Where you feel like you're failing, look around it. What small things are you actually succeeding in in that regard that God delivered as a package to you that you're dismissing because you're too focused on the failure of the bigger picture, ultimate result. Another thing that God could be doing when it comes to you feeling like you failed in your calling, he could be building your capacity. A lot of times when we're obeying and doing what God is calling us to do, we're putting in effort, we're testing, we're trying. That takes a lot of steps, not just physical, but mental exertion as well. It's a strain on us holistically, physically, mentally, spiritually, emotionally, because we're trying, and a lot of times that trying causes us to be out of our comfort zone, which is hard for us. So when we do that and when we're bumping into moments of failure, rather than saying, man, I have failed at this. Why isn't this working? What is wrong with me? What if you said. How is God building my capacity in what feels like a failure, but really isn't? How is he building my ability to handle pivots, to handle waiting seasons, to handle consistency? To make space when things aren't going my way, how is he building my capacity and overall maturity in handling those things. Something that I've been thinking so much about lately is whatever challenge I'm going through right now, I am learning something in this that is going to prepare me for my next season of life. How God is teaching me to build capacity and maturity in my life right now is going to set me up for success as a future mother. How God is teaching me to build capacity and maturity right now is going to set me up for success when it comes to me finally paying off all of my debts, reaching financial freedom and earning seven figures. Me learning to build capacity now is going to set me up for success, to be able to handle and carry what God has in store for me in the future, to be able to learn how to balance family and work and dreams and people and relationships and health my connection with God all at the same time. What if God is simply trying to build your capacity, and the only way for him to do that in you is to bring you through moments of what feels like failure in what he's called you to do. and this also relates to growing your faith. I truly believe that waiting seasons happen to strengthen our faith. Failures, challenges, circumstances, heartaches. They can either take us deep down into a dark place or they can strengthen our faith. You get to decide which way you go. last, but not least in your moments where you feel like you're just failing. In your calling, in your business, whatever it might be, God could be using you as a vessel to someone else. A lot of times when we are chasing after our calling, do we think about the people that we want to impact the mission? Absolutely. But let's be honest, we also think about how this benefits us. How does this benefit me financially? How does this serve me in this way? How does this get me outta my nine to five? How does this shape me to be more confident? How me, me, me, how does this do this for me? We think about those things. It's the priority when you are leading and prioritizing what you are doing. When you are prioritizing your calling, serving you over your calling, first and foremost, serving God, and then serving others through you, then it's a problem and it's something that we all, I think, have to check our hearts on. because what if. Even though it feels like a failure to you, what if God is instead using you as a vessel for someone else's success? That's a hard reality, right? Because we all, we wanna succeed too. But what if through your chase of this calling and the success in that, what if along the way of trying and putting in effort, even though you feel like you're failing, what if a conversation you had with someone along the way, the stories you've shared along the way, the people that are seeing it along the way. Even if it may not have worked in the way you thought it would, what if that's all it took for someone to see that even a little bit for it to create any sort of ounce of transformation, a tiny seed planted for them to grow, for them to succeed in something, for them to feel like an idea was sparked in their mind. What if that was needed for the progress of someone else? This one's a tough one to think about because I do think that this one also requires us to meditate on this, but ultimately it's really essential for us to constantly check our heart's posture. Because if we are only focusing on our failure we're referencing that failure in regards to our lives. How is this failing in my life? Rather than, how could this be planting a seed or progressing someone else in their life? You just never know. But the beauty of that is trusting God with what he might be doing in what feels like a failure to you, but really isn't. Okay. So I gave a lot of reasons, a lot of things that God could potentially be doing in your life as you're facing these moments of failure in your business, you're calling whatever it might be, but how do we position ourselves better? What can we do? we feel the emotions of that failure. Okay? We feel the effects of that. It's depressing. So how do we change our posture, change our perspective? What do we even do so that we're no longer feeling depressed by what seems like failure? And instead we're trusting God with the beauty of what he's doing behind the scenes of that first thing that I'll say, stop focusing on the failure. Start focusing on the obedience. You bypassed, dismissed, underplayed, you taking action, you obeying God, you doing what he's calling you to do in your calling. It's like once we get going with that and we're on a roll, We downplay that act of obedience because we're so focused on the results that that obedience will produce, and we forget about the obedience in and of itself. Stop focusing on the failure and shift to the fact that you're just being obedient. You are being obedient when it succeeds, when it fails, when it's stagnant, when it's making progress, you are being obedient and you have this steadiness. And just focusing on obedience over the failure itself because you trust God and you know that as long as you obey what he's calling you to do, he will work out everything for your good. It's just a matter of time. It's just a matter of trusting what else he might be doing behind the scenes of what seems like failure to you, but really isn't shift your focus. The next time you feel like you failed at something within your calling or something isn't working and you just can't get it right and what is wrong with this and what is wrong with me, the next time those thoughts are triggered, genuinely mentally shift to, you know what, I'm obeying God. That is all that matters. I'm obeying God. He will work it out for me. I'm gonna keep going. I'm gonna keep trying. I'm gonna keep testing. I'm gonna keep putting in effort. I'm gonna rest in between. I'm gonna prioritize God above it all, and I'm just gonna trust him with this thing. Easier said than done, I know, but a lot of things are really just about changing our perspective. Second thing that I'll say, and this has been one of my favorite phrases to tell myself lately, let God. Be good enough for you. When we are so weighed down by what feels like a failure surface level, that's what we tell ourselves, that it's a failure. But deep down it's the simple fact that what we did, what we're doing, this life, this season, it's not good enough. What does it look like for God to be all the enough that you need? Can God be good enough for you? Is God good enough for you? To the point where no matter what you're going through, what season you're in, the failures, the successes, and everything in between, God is good enough for you to the point where you, my friend, are steady. You are content. You might have moments where you're feeling really low, but you've built up the consistency to be content because you trust him. God is good enough for you. This is something I'm working on daily and it's hard, but when you really put that into your life, man, it can change you for the better. It can change. Your ability to be peaceful, your ability to remain confident, your ability to not worry about anything, including the timing of things let God be good enough. Last thing that I'll say. When you take the time to reflect on the successes that God is delivering to you, that's just coming in a smaller or a different package, Remember I just talked about that. When you take the time to reflect on what those other successes could be, rather than keeping your eye on the big failure, what those other smaller successes could be around it, I want you to look at those things and not just be aware of them and be like, oh, cool, okay. I succeeded in these areas. I want you to finish it out. The areas that you do see Are growing, you pursue it, finish it out. For example, if I know that if the launch that I've been trying was failing, but yet I succeeded in building the skillset of having a visual eye or a design, things like that, then let me continue building on that skillset. Let me put it to use in other areas of my business and other areas of my life. And watch the outcome of it on the other end. Going back to my emotional intelligence story, if the little success that I've seen is me simply being aware of triggers of when my emotions are at an all time high. Let me not just be like, oh, that's cool. I've succeeded in being aware of these things. no, let me pursue it. Let me progress in that specific thing. What does that look like for me to become an intelligent in my awareness? Just some thoughts, because I think when we pivot in that way. We start to find joy in the things that actually are working by not just letting them sit there but pursuing them and progressing them further. And in that way it actually does progress. Your overarching big picture vision of your calling to the point where, where you feel like you failed, eventually you will succeed because you focused on these little things that were working and you doubled down just something to think about my friend. You're not a failure. I know it feels like it. I understand. I have been there many times. You're not a failure. God is doing something behind the scenes in what feels like a failure to you as you pursue your God-given calling. But to God, this is success. He is working all things together for your good. pay attention to the little things, the uncommon things. Do the work in changing your perspective. You do that, your life will change. Your joy as you continue pursuing your calling will change. I truly believe that Thanks so much for tuning in, friend. I hope that you enjoyed this episode, and if you did, enjoy it. Feel free to forward it over to a friend, email it, text it if you feel like this could be the uplifting message that they could use in their life right here, right now. We'll see you next week. Enjoy the rest of your day.