Failure is not forever!
Verse for Today: Saturday, October 01, 2011
Mark 9:28 – After Jesus had gone indoors, His disciples asked Him privately, “Why couldn’t we drive it out?”
Admitting one’s failure is the right approach to life. Admission of failure is not a weakness, but a courageous act. When we fail in something, we should know why we failed. Only those who admit their failures can probe into the reasons for it and try to avoid it in the future. But for a child of God, there is a place for them to go and report their failures. They can go to the Lord and confess their failures like the disciples who failed in their ministry. As they confessed, they were concerned about the reasons for their failure. So the Lord pointed out a serious flaw in their prayer life. When they attempted a ministry without adequate power from the Lord and His Spirit, they were bound to fail. Joshua found out that Israelites failed to capture Ai because of covetousness. David failed on many occasions because of his unbelief and self-reliance. Jonah was a failure because of disobedience. Lot was a failure because he loved the world with its fame and fortune. Solomon failed because of lust. Soul was a great failure because he was jealous. Ananias and Sapphira failed because of deception and cover-up. Demas was a failure because he fell in love with the world. There are always reasons for failures in our lives and it is in our best spiritual interest to enquire of the Lord for the reasons. He speaks to us through His Spirit and Word. We can hear His voice through and in times of failure. We must heed to the Lord’s counsel, genuinely confess the reasons for failure and get ourselves right with Him. Our Lord will not write us off when we fail. Failure is a window through which we can reach out to Him for help. Failure is a vehicle through which the Lord opens our eyes towards our lapses. Failure indicates our insufficiency in ourselves and our deficiencies in using the power of God. Failure also shows us the extent to which we can draw upon the resources of God and march towards success according to His will.
Dear friend, have you tasted the bitterness of failure in your life? You would have probably experienced failure in your ministry and spiritual life. But failure is not a time to give up or give in. It is not a time to wallow over the losses because of failure. Rather it is a time to get up out of our failures and go to the Lord and enquire of Him about the reasons for it. It is a time to seek His face to find out why we failed and how to experience a revival. It is a time to understand that there is always a way back to God for restoration. It is a time of confession and repentance for all the lapses in our hearts and lives. It is a time to admit our failures and submit ourselves for His mercy. It is a moment to confess to the Lord that only He can revive and restore us. It is a time to settle our debts to the Lord in our devotion, loyalty, commitment and surrender. It is a time to ask the Lord to open our eyes of understanding and to give us His discernment. It is a time to ask Him to show us the way forward so that we can come out of the ashes of failures and fly to higher spiritual altitudes. Today let us not look at our circumstances and be discouraged. Let us not give up because of failures of the past. Let us not give in to frustration and despondency. Let us continue to trust the Lord to lead us forward through renewal and revival. Ai can still be captured. Abraham can still go back to Canaan. Jonah will be able to go to Nineveh and preach. Walls of Jerusalem can be rebuilt. Pauls are waiting for the return of Demases. The gates of Hades will never overcome the church of our Lord. He can take us forward in our battle with the enemy of our souls and restore and revive us. Let today be a day of revival and renewal and not a day of hopelessness.
Psalms 89:33 – Nevertheless, My loving-kindness will I not utterly take from him, nor allow My faithfulness to fail.
Thought for Today
When failures are confessed to the Lord, He will open the windows of Heaven to shower renewed opportunities upon us.
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