Romans 1:10 (NKJV)

“making request if, by some means, now at last I may find a way in the will of God to come to you.”

We may make all our diligent and detailed plans but making plans do not guarantee that our efforts will succeed, and if they succeed outside of God’s will, then we have surely failed. God has a will, and if we are laboring outside His will, we labor in vain. From his tone in this scripture, (“now at last I may find a way”), it looked as though Paul had been trying hard to achieve his goal but he had failed on his many attempts. In this fresh attempt, Paul was hoping that he would succeed “by some means…in the will of God.”

Let’s accept that failure in God’s will is success. Success outside God’s will is failure. Our total ambition in life should be to do and live only in His will. There is a failure that is good and that is failure when God chooses not to endorse you or your plans that are outside His will. To desire that your plans succeed at all times and by all means, is very dangerous. For the discerning disciple, success is not the most important thing. To succeed outside of God’s will is the most dangerous place to be; and to fail while remaining in the heart of God’s will is mercy from heaven.

“Lord, I don’t want anything that You have not endorsed. Let this prayer, Lord, never be canceled for all eternity. If I desire anything that’s outside Your total and perfect will, then may I fail woefully and terribly in that thing. I pray this with all sense of sincerity Lord, in Jesus name. Amen.”