“Purify me from my sins, and I will be clean; wash me, and I will be whiter than snow. Oh, give me back my joy again; you have broken me – now let me rejoice. Don’t keep looking at my sins. Remove the stain of my guilt. Create in me a clean heart, O God. Renew a loyal spirit within me.” (Psalm 51:7-10 NLT)
Psalm 51 is David’s plea with God to forgive and restore him after his epic failure to obey and honor God. King David not only violated the wife of one of his loyal soldiers, he also had him set up, so he’d be killed in battle, to try to cover David’s crime against him. Of course, God forgave him, but his sin set in motion a series of events that signaled the beginning of the end for David’s reign and life.
To some degree failure is common to every person. The Bible says: “For everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God’s glorious standard.” No human being makes it out of this world unscathed by Satan’s tentacles. So, the question is never “have I failed?” it’s only and always, “To what degree have I failed? And “What am I going to do with my failure?”
What have you done that’s brought the most shame, disgust, and torment? And I’m not speaking of the trigonometry test you failed in high school; I’m addressing your failure to obey a clear directive of God. He said to do one thing and you did another; He said don’t go there, but you went anyway; He warned not to pursue that relationship, but you persisted because it just “felt so right!”
My intention isn’t to have us dredge up painful memories, it’s to help us understand that whatever we have done or allowed ourselves to become, there is still hope for us. There is no such thing as a little sin or big sin, sin is sin and Jesus paid the price for us to be forgiven of sin – period! The Bible is clear that God “is so rich in kindness and grace that He purchased our freedom with the blood of His Son and forgave our sins.”
Because of the sacrifice of our Savior and the grace of our Father in heaven, failure can be and often is the platform upon which comes our greatest blessing. We can’t fix what we don’t know is broken and sometimes we don’t realize how invested in Satan’s kingdom we are until we fail in a big way. However, failure isn’t “fixed” until we seek forgiveness and, when demanded, restitution.
In Numbers 5:6-7 God warns that when we wrong someone, we must make restitution. And just in case someone might say: “Yeh, but that’s Old Testament!” And I’d say, “Yeh, but so is ‘love your neighbor as yourself,’” that Jesus commanded us to obey. If we’re looking for a way out, we’re not ready to be forgiven and allow the Lord to use our sin as a springboard to correction that can transform our lives for the better.
Paul was clear when he wrote to young Timothy: “Don’t let anyone think less of you because you are young. Be an example to all believers in what you say, in the way you live, in your love, your faith, and your purity.” There’s no question that failure brings a setback; however, what that failure leads us to will be a defining moment, not only in our faith, but our life.
Satan’s goal for you and me is to “Steal, kill, and destroy,” but God’s plan for us is “to give (us) a rich and satisfying life.” If our brokenness from our failure launches us into depression, self-loathing, and uselessness for Kingdom purposes, then Satan has won. But if, by God’s grace and with His forgiveness and guidance our failure gives us more determination to be all God wants us to be, then our failure has done its work. The result will be greater growth and fruitfulness for us than we every dared imagine, plus more glory to God than we could have ever dreamed.
Whatever you’ve done that seems to have defeated you; whatever failure has you knocked down – by God’s grace and with His help – GET UP! YOUR FAILURE IS NOT FINAL!
Food for thought.
Blessings, Ed 😊
Walking With Jesus 