Don't you just hate it when you feel defeated? I sure do. It doesn't feel good to feel defeated. If anything, it feels real bad:

• To lose that basketball/football/volleyball game even after playing at your best;
• To burn that chicken as you try your hand at cooking for the family;
• To keep praying but not receiving what you prayed for.

As there are many times for us to succeed, there are as many times that we can fail and feel defeated. Sadly, not all of us succeed all the time.

Even when we've prayed for our success, we can still fail. Especially if we want to succeed on our terms.

But did you know, dear friends, that failures and feeling defeated is, in itself, a good thing in the hands of our good and gracious God and Father?

Yes, that's true. Romans 8:28 encourages those who love Him,

"And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose."

By these words we can simply understand that everything is useful to our God to fulfill His purposes for our lives. If we love Him, even the times that we feel defeated is a good thing, something we will soon look back to with gratefulness as we follow Him.

The purpose for this unpleasant feeling

While it's not good to feel defeated, we can rejoice in the fact that God has a purpose for us as we go through it. And what's the purpose?

Romans 8:29 tells us:

"For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren."

God wants to transform us to become like Christ through everything we go through -- including feeling defeated.

• Times of defeat humble us and make us realize that we're not perfect.
• Times of defeat make us realize that we need to become wiser and do better.
• Times of defeat challenge us to pray more, trust in God more, and follow Christ more.

Feeling defeated is different from being totally useless. It doesn't mean that He doesn't have plans for us anymore. It doesn't mean God has abandoned us.

We all need to remember that God created us in Christ for good works (see Ephesians 2:10). We're not useless.

We all need to remember that God's plans for us go beyond us, into our future (see Jeremiah 29:11). He has plans for our future, way bigger than what we plan for ourselves.

We also need to remember that God will never break His Word: that He won't ever abandon us (see Hebrews 13:5). He will never forsake us.

It's always a victory in God's hands

Friends, we always need to keep in mind that Christ has already won the battle for us. In Him, we all live from a position and place of victory. We're victors, not victims. Let's live by faith in the victorious Son of God.

"I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me." (Galatians 2:20)