Obedience to God is Never a Failure

Many families feel called to adopt; they feel God’s hand leading them to explore and pursue the adoption process. In some situations, a family’s adoption journey may end without ultimately adopting a child. Ending in that way may feel like they have failed.

We may wonder, “If a family feels led to adopt, but adoption doesn’t happen for them, why did they feel led to do so?” We get surprised when things don’t go the way we desire them to go, especially when we felt called. It is very easy to see that and call it a failure. Sometimes, we miss what God is doing around us, how he is working in us and through us to impact others. Families may look back months or years after their adoption process has ended to see the hand of God working in their lives throughout that time, bringing them to a greater purpose later in their journey. The adoption process may have been preparing them for the next step in God’s plan for their lives, or they may have had a significant impact on the lives they touched along the way.

We may wonder, “If a family feels led to adopt, but adoption doesn’t happen for them, why did they feel led to do so?”

No matter what journey we are on, we need to remember that our God is faithful. While we may never know what the purpose of each leg of our journey is, we can know that God has a plan. As Jeremiah shares in the Old Testament:

“For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord,

“plans to prosper you and not to harm you,

plans to give you hope and a future.

Then you will call on me and come and pray to me,

and I will listen to you.

You will seek me and find me when you

seek me with all your heart.”

Jeremiah 29:11-13

When God calls you to do something, and you do it, you have already succeeded, no matter the outcome.

Success is not defined by results; it is not tied to tangible evidence. Success is obedience. Obedience is the marker of being successfully led by God, and obedience to God is never a failure. Following God’s call on your life to pursue the dreams he has instilled in you is being obedient to His will. Now, we may never know what His plan is when things don’t seem to work out the way we think they will or we think they “should”, but there is a bigger picture. Bigger than what is in front of us, bigger than we can ever hope for or imagine. Hold on to that. Know that listening to God’s leading in your life, and being obedient, is not a failure. When God calls you to do something, and you do it, you have already succeeded, no matter the outcome.