Shake it off

Dealing with a fail

Deb Peacock

Recently when I was doing some ministry I did a bad job of speaking.  And to make it worse, I had just learnt more about what I needed to do so I had been upskilled and I had also prepared more for this job I needed to do. And it went poorly.

Straight afterwards, I was already shaking my head and slumping my shoulders and thinking wow that was bad. And just as quickly from behind my right shoulder I heard the Lord. He said, “shake if off.” My first inclination was to the negative and to think so it really was bad. But then, I realised, regardless of this observation, he had given me an instruction and it was to shake it off. I was to forgive myself quickly there and then.

So I entered a wrestle to get out of the fast funk that was coming on me and get back to my freedom in Jesus and my freedom to keep working in sync with him. Five minutes later I connected the dots: the Lord had another job for me to do that would significantly bless someone else. As I agreed and obeyed and shook off the fail, I moved into my next God led moment and the Holy Spirit moved powerfully.

We know we are to keep short accounts with God. Don’t let a fail get in the way of you and God today. Shake it off.

God is not a lying God - if it went badly, he won’t deny that so you can trust him then when he says you did a good job too. Shake it off was truth - it went badly but it didn’t disqualify me from being appointed and called in the position I was in. The Lord still had good things for me to do.

What is the fail that you need to shake off today? Don’t let it hold you back or disqualify you from continuing on and working with the Lord. He doesn’t see you disqualified, so why should you?

Shake it off. Shake it off before it settles.