As we get to the end of these testimonies, may you find rest in the lessons gleaned from these overcomers..

“Failure is part of life. I can tell you this from personal experience. From seeing dreams not fulfilled to making regretful mistakes, we all have the capacity to fail. But failure can also be a fundamental process, the “missing ingredient’ which helps to push us toward success.

When we fail at something, our natural instinct is often to feel ashamed and disappointed. We don’t like feeling degraded and humiliated, note this is where we need to shift our thinking. If we can begin to see failure not as the end but as part of a valuable process on the way to success, we can learn a great deal.

Proverbs 23:7 says that as a man “thinks in his heart, so is he (NKJV). And this is so true!

The way we think about ourselves will determine our beliefs. Our beliefs will determine our expectations. Our expectation will determine our attitudes, our attitudes will determine our behaviour, our behaviour will determine our performance and our performance will determine who we become, which ultimately determines our destiny.

We need to make sure that failure is seen from the right perspective: as the greatest teacher and not as the greatest shame! The sooner we stop devaluing ourselves because of failures, the easier it will be to turn them to our advantage.

I remember as a teenager at school, a teacher asked the class what we wanted to do when we grew up. When it was my turn, I told her I wanted to be a surgeon, and she laughed and said “Do you realise, David that is a lot of studying? I can’t see you doing it. I can see you emptying dustbins.

For many years, those words affected my thoughts. I felt like a failure and I thought to myself “what is the point in trying if l am not capable of achieving much?

However, when I rededicated my life to the Lord when l was eighteen, everything changed. I discovered what God thought about me and that His words could erase the past and delete all the harmful words that had impacted my life. I remember as if it was yesterday! God gave me a dream that although I was a porter/cleaner at that point, I could get to the Boardroom. I remember saying these words: How can this be?

I had messed up my education and had no qualifications. And yet l soon learned that God’s word had everything l needed to educate me for a successful life. God was able to reveal business principles to help me with my dreams and years later, my dream became a reality when in 1995 l was appointed to lead a discount chain of a major organisation.

Here is what l have learnt from that journey

• Man’s labels must not affect what l think about myself. The only labels that should shape my though process should be the labels that God has put on me! He says that i am called, that i am qualified, that His power and strength is at work in me and that i can do great exploits for the kingdom.
• Beware of how you think about yourself. Never forget that when you are speaking you are listening. Negative self-talk can be very destructive, especially after failure or if you are struggling with the labels that people have put on you. As God to help you resist the thoughts that lead you to label yourself as useless and worthless. God thinks more highly of you than you will ever imagine
• Remember that disappointment is inevitable, but make sure that it doesn’t take over your life. Pick yourself up after any failure and allow your failures to become your greatest teacher.
• Your failures will shape your future if your allow them to and too often we allow our past mistakes to define us. WELL DON’T. Even failure does not have to be fatal…. failure can be your greatest teacher! Even if your past is a total failure, your future does not depend on it. God can turn your past mistakes into miracles, for your future depends not on what you’ve done, but on what He’s done for you.”

Our expectation is that there will be a lifting up through these testimonies. He will make it happen if you are willing. Shalom.

Pastor Afolabi Oladele