If At First You Don’t Succeed 

A well-meaning friend, trying to comfort Thomas A. Edison, said, “It must be very discouraging to fail seventy-nine successive experiments.” Edison replied, “I am not discouraged in the least, and I’ve not made one failure. I’ve just learned seventy-nine ways it cannot be done.”  Thomas Edison continued on with experiments surpassing six thousand things that did not work until he was finally able to make a functioning electric light bulb.    

Today there are many in God’s church with the attitude of Thomas Edison’s friend.  Their view of life is through a negative prism.  But, thanks be to God there are others who have the attitude of Thomas Edison himself.  They understand God’s goal and are steadfast in their efforts to accomplish it even though there are often more perceived failures than accolades for success.  They would be become discouraged if the accolades was the goal for which they keep on striving.   

These are God’s servants who understand that God knows their heart and sees their motives as well as their results.  These are the ones who heed the voice of the prophet Ezekiel ( Ch. 3 )  when he teaches us the importance of being a faithful witness.   God is not willing that any should perish, but alas most do.  Even so, if the watchman has faithfully sounded the warning, he is vindicated in the eyes of God.  Thus, there is no failure so long as we press on trying everything we can think of to persuade men to be saved 

Phil. 3: 13-14  but one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead, 14 I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.