I am glad the Lord has reminded you of this, Phil.  I know you have known it 
before . . . but we forget so quickly, don't we!

God doesn't measure success the way we do, that's for sure.  Remember, at 
the end He will be saying "Well done, good and faithful servant", not 
"successful servant".

Yes, there can sometimes be a measure of both, thank God, but we don't have 
to spell out success as the world knows it!

In His love - thanking Him for all that He is saying to you at this time.

--
Carol - Reading, UK

To you, o Lord, I lift up my soul;
In You I trust, o my God.  . . .."  PS25:1-2 NIV.


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Phil Scovell" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Monday, May 07, 2007 12:14 AM
Subject: Good News


> Last night, after midnight, as I said earlier, I was still up praying and
> listening to tapes and trying to find the answer I needed to continue in 
> the
> ministry.  Nothing was working.  Not even my prayers of threatening and
> complaints to God.  He's not afraid of me or you so He understands
> regardless of how you pray even out of total frustration.  Anyhow, I flip
> the radio on for the 100th time, it seemed like, tuned all the Christian
> stations, and found nothing.  This time, however, I flipped the radio on 
> and
> the first sentence I heard was a man saying, God has not called us to
> successfulness, just to faithfulness.  He wasn't even preaching.  He was
> just responding to something his guest had just said which I hadn't heard.
> My mind sprang back nearly 5 years ago when I was sitting in a man's 
> office
> for my first prayer session.  The anxiety and panic attacks had 
> commandeered
> my days and the demonic voices in my thoughts kept me awake, at first, for 
> 4
> nights and five days trying to get me to kill myself, renounce God, and a
> whole lot of other things.  When I did drift off to sleep, they awakened 
> me
> by shouting so loudly in my head, I would literally almost jump out of 
> bed.
> The nightmares were worse.  As I sat there in this office, I knew God
> wouldn't do anything.  The man asked me what I was feeling at that very
> moment.  I said, "I feel like a failure."  He prayed.  I heard the Lord's
> voice clearly say, "I never asked you to be successful."  I was stunned.
> What?  I thought even being in the ministry was all about successfulness.
> Right?  I've never tried from that day until now to be successful so that
> one phrase in the middle of the night, confirmed Jesus was still around 
> and
> hadn't forgotten who I was.
>
> Phil.