While I was working on my master’s, everything went fairly smoothly until I came to my last class. This class was the final class which I had to take before going to missionary school in Australia. The national average on this exam is 69%; however, my school required students to get at least a 70%. Students were given two attempts at this exam—one at week 5 and the other at week 8.

During the first 5 weeks of the class I studied, as much as I could comfortably fit into my busy work schedule. So far, my efforts combined with God’s help, had worked very well for me. However, during the fifth week, I travelled to Australia and had only three days after arriving to take my exam. I was sure I would pass because I was doing well on the practice exams; I also believed that God wanted me to pass so I’d have less homework during the last three weeks of my nursing class and my first three weeks of missionary school.

Within a few hours of arriving to Australia, tired and jet-lagged as I was, I decided to take my test and get it over with. However, a few minutes into the exam, I realized that the internet was not working correctly. My host family, where I was staying, was not home. After I restarted the internet, it still would not work consistently. Time was passing; I had to figure out what to do. Finally, I was able to purchase internet credit in Australia and use my phone as a hotspot! However, now I had to rush to finish my test on time. I quickly completed all the questions ten minutes before the deadline. I fully expected that God would help me pass, but I failed.

I was shocked! How could God allow me to fail? He had helped me so far to pass all of my exams, essays and classes. And I did well on my practice exams for this test. So how did I fail?

Now that missionary school started, I was going to be very busy also having to complete my last nursing class. I even had to do an extra 30-page assignment, since I was not able to attend the live 3-day review session in Chicago. But I wasn’t worried about it, because I believed that God would help me.

During the first three weeks of missionary school, God helped me with my nursing school assignments and to stay on track with missionary school. But unfortunately, I didn’t have much time to study. I was not able to review the previously learned material from my master’s program. The night before my final exam, I asked all the missionary school students to pray that I would pass.

I got up the next morning, my second attempt at the final exam. I prayed and did my best to trust in God. As I started the test, however, I realized that each question was taking at least one minute to load. I decided to video the difficulty I was having with the test loading. Unfortunately, the time ran out before I was able to finish the last three questions; I was also unable to review my flagged results. When I finished, I realized again that I did not pass because of the internet difficulty again.

I couldn’t understand how God had allowed me to fail, when I was in missionary school and “doing my best.” I was very disappointed that I would have to take this class again, and spend another $4,000 for tuition. After a few hours I started to think . . . “I probably failed because I couldn’t finish the test and review my questions. I called my teacher, explained the situation, and she thought I had a chance of retaking the test. So, I submitted an appeal to the school with my video and prayed and waited. The school was taking a while to review my case, since they had several similar cases.

In the meantime, I kept studying, but only as much as comfortably possible without sacrificing fun or friends to study. I also prayed daily to pass the test.

At last, I got a response from my school that I was approved to retake this test, seven weeks after the class had finished! By now, I was more prepared, and had good internet at the church in Schofields. I took the test, and felt pretty good about it. After submitting the last question, I didn’t wait for the result, but went to another room and prayed, thanking the Lord that I had passed!

When I came back, I couldn’t believe my eyes. I had failed by only 0.5%. My score was 0.5% higher than the national average. I wondered, “Why did my school set the standard 1% above the national average?

Asking . . . claiming . . . believing

Since I had to retake the class, it required humility, on my part, to set up my clinicals again, and to tell others that I had to retake the class. But this time, however, I knew I needed to study harder and to continue asking for wisdom from above. I realized that I needed to give it my 110% in studying over the next 3 weeks. I also realized that I needed wisdom—wisdom which I did not have, so I began claiming James 1:5, 6. “If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him. But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering. For he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed.”

Not only did I ask God for wisdom, I asked for it in faith! I believed that God could give me wisdom as He did to Daniel. As I was doing my part, studying every spare moment, God did His part. When the day of the final exam arrived, I prayed and left it in God’s hands. However, this time it was different. I was familiar with the content of most of the questions, and when I was done, I found out I had passed!!! But not only did I pass, but I scored 12% higher than the national average!

Why did it take me four steps to pass my final exam as a Nurse Practitioner? Why did I have to go through this experience? Maybe I wasn’t studying hard enough on the previous attempts, then I took the test after being jet-lagged, and later I had trouble with the internet. But also, perhaps I didn’t fully trust God. I discovered two important reasons why God had allowed me to go through this experience. I needed to learn that human effort and divine power combined are needed for me to be successful in whatever I undertake.

“After we have offered our petitions, we are to answer them ourselves as far as possible, and not wait for God to do for us what we can do for ourselves. The help of God is held in reserve for all who demand it. Divine help is to be combined with human effort, aspiration, and energy.”—My Life Today, p. 19.

The second reason God didn’t let me pass is that He wanted me to share the gospel at the clinic where I had previously worked as an intern. When I returned to this clinic the second time, I shared with the staff about my studies at the missionary school in Australia and left multiple Spirit of Prophecy books with them.

The sweetest success is the one that’s most difficult. Our society doesn’t reward defeat, and we don’t find many failures recorded in history books. But the Bible has many life stories of people who’ve failed and later achieved success. As Christians, we must make our failures steppingstones to future success. It took Thomas Edison 1,000 tries before he produced his most memorable invention—the light bulb. When a reporter asked him, “How did it feel to fail 1,000 times?” Edison replied, “I didn’t fail 1,000 times; the light bulb was an invention with 1,000 steps.”

Dear friends, when you go through difficult experiences in life remember these precious promises, “Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths” (Proverbs 3:5, 6).

“For a just man falleth seven times, and riseth up again” (Proverbs 24:16). Let us conquer every mistake, every fault, and every difficulty with Christ’s help, and allow it to become a stepping-stone to higher success!