By 
Many years ago I went to Washington, DC to do a series of messages. I went back there a few years later and met a young woman who came up to me and said, “I want to thank you.” I said. “So that?” She said: “When you first came here, I had so many fears. One of my fears was that I didn’t want to get behind the wheel of a car. I didn’t know how to drive. I didn’t want to learn. After listening to your messages, something you said made me overcome that fear. Now I have my license, I am driving to work, I am very happy. It changed my life.” I thanked her for sharing her testimony with me and I have shared it with you because I believe this message will also help you overcome your fears.
There is probably nothing that people are not afraid of. There is the fear of heights, the fear of flying, the fear of open spaces, the fear of closed spaces, the fear of cats, the fear of dogs, the fear of vehicles, the fear of people, the fear of spiders, the fear of lightning and so on. There are people who do not leave their room out of fear. They will not meet the public, they will not get on an elevator, they will not get on a plane, and their life is extremely limited by all these fears.
The number one fear that prevents people from achieving success is the fear of failure. In Matthew 25, there is a record of one of Jesus’ parables. Jesus spoke of a man who was about to set out on a journey and called his servants and entrusted his property to them. To one he gave five talents, to another two, and to another he gave one.
Some time later the Master returned to settle accounts. The man with the five said; “Master, you entrusted me with five talents, I have gained another five.” The Master told him, “Well done, you are a good and faithful servant. You have been faithful in some things, I will make you great, I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your Master’s happiness!” The same thing happened with the man with two talents, but something different happened with the man with one talent. The man with the talent said, “Sir, I know a lot about you. You are a hard man, you reap where you did not sow and gather where you did not spread; I was afraid and went out and hid your talent in the ground. Here is your money back.”
This third servant was afraid to risk, afraid to invest, afraid to risk, afraid to lose. He thought, “What if I invest Master’s money and it doesn’t work out? Then I will have to deal with him and he is a very difficult man to deal with.” But the Master did not like that answer. The Master said: “You evil and lazy servant. Do you know that I reap where I have not sown and gather where I have not scattered?” I want you to notice what Master said; “You should have put my money on deposit with the bankers.”
God does not require you to take a great risk like the man who had five talents and came back with five more. That is not putting money in the bank; you can’t do that in a bank; he did something extraordinary, he invested. The man with two talents also came back with two more. That’s extraordinary, it’s a 100% return!
God is also looking for some return. He is looking for a return on his investment in YOU. It doesn’t have to be 100%. He says you can put it in the bank and it will accept the current interest rate of 5%. If God has given you an ability in something and you are letting fear paralyze you from using it, I want you to know that God is telling you that he is not happy about it. You’re not doing any good by conserving talent and skill. God wants him to use them, not hide them.
The Lord has shown me that there are many people who are paralyzed by fear. They are like the lazy servant; they won’t do anything. They are hiding what God has given them. I have met many of these paralyzed people. Some have been divorced and now the fear of failure has prevented them from moving on to another marriage. Some are afraid to get married because they don’t trust themselves. They feel that the marriage may end in divorce; they are afraid of failing, afraid of looking for a new job, afraid of asking for a promotion, afraid, afraid, afraid of everything. That fear of failure prevents them from doing anything. They live a safe life, but it is not the kind of life that God wants them to live. Don’t miss out on the life God has to offer you because of your fear of failure.
How can you overcome your fear of failure? You have to look back on your life and see what successes you have had and capitalize on those successes. When David faced Goliath, he knew he would succeed because he drew on his past victories over a lion and a bear. If I have a habit that I am trying to break and it is giving me a lot of trouble, I always have confidence that I will break it eventually. But what gives me so much confidence? It’s because when I look back on my life, I see the success I had in breaking other difficult habits.
What if you’re one of those people who can’t build on past successes? If you can’t build on your own success, turn to the success of others. Years after David killed Goliath, David and his men went into battle against Goliath’s brothers who were just as big. David’s men learned from him that they could defeat the giants, and they killed all the other giants that attacked them. They had lost their fear of giants. Before Roger Banister broke the four-minute mile, people thought it was an impossible feat. No one had ever been able to run that fast, but once Roger Bannister did it, other people took advantage of his success and now breaking the mile in four minutes is commonplace.
Always remember this, if you have done something similar in the past, you can do it again in the future. If others with similar challenges have accomplished something with practice and determination, so can you. Never be afraid to fail. It is better to try something big and fail than to try nothing and succeed.