How to Navigate Failure
John Bailey and Mark Renfroe discuss the ways in which failures start to define our self-image and relationships.
Failures
Revelation 22:12-13
“Behold, I am coming soon, bringing my recompense with me, to repay each one for what he has done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end.”
Forgetting Our Failures and Serving Jesus
When I asked the Holy Spirit to show me how to guard against neglect, he led me to consider Peter’s drifting and his eventual renewal. This man denied Christ, even cursing, telling his accuser, “I don’t know him.”
Yet Peter was the first among the disciples to give up the struggle. He forsook his calling and returned to his old career, telling the others, “I’m going fishing.” What he really was saying is, “I can’t handle this. I had thought I couldn’t fail, but nobody ever failed God worse than I did. I just can’t face the struggle anymore.”
2 Corinthians 4:7
But we have this treasure in jars of clay, to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us.
From Despair to Destiny in Jesus
Jesus sees and knows what could destroy us. He is Alpha and Omega, the first and the last page of our existence. He is never stunned by our mistakes, our secrets, and our failures. He never “finds out” anything about us — he has all knowledge and all love and he never gives up on us and our future.
This is beautifully illustrated in the relationship between Jesus and the brash Peter. Peter had boldly proclaimed his undying loyalty when he proclaimed that he would never forsake Jesus: “Even if all others forsake You, I will stay with You, even to my death!” (see Luke 22:33).
Life as the Broken Victor
Admitting our follies and mistakes is already hard, and it becomes even harder when people treat us differently as a result, but what does the Bible say for when we really mess up?
“Once when I told my story at a missions conference, a woman informed me I had a demon,” wrote George Verwer, international director of Operation Mobilization.
Heaven's View of Our Failures
The enemy is doing everything in his power to keep us in subjection to a feeling of mediocrity and to cause us to forget who we really are in Christ. He will never stop accusing us this side of Heaven, and his whispers of your failures will be constant. In this powerful sermon, Carter Conlon reminds us what God says about himself and who we are as his children. It's time to stop listening to the enemy and live in the promises of God.
Leaving Regrets in the Past
The writings of the apostle Paul clearly show that his preeminent desire in life was to know Jesus. He wanted to be fully yielded to the living Christ whom he was now aware had taken up residence inside his earthly body. He wrote, “In Him we live and move and have our being” (Acts 17:28).
Paul was aware of something that we need to rediscover today: We are not called to simply bring the knowledge of God to our generation; we are called to be a visible expression of who God is by allowing him to demonstrate his power, wisdom, grace and love through us.
Faithfulness in Spite of Our Failures
“Samuel took the horn of oil and anointed him in the midst of his brothers; and the Spirit of the Lord came upon David from that day forward” (1 Samuel 16:13).
David became a man who was godly, wise, loved: “And David behaved wisely in all his ways, and the Lord was with him” (18:14). He was a man of much prayer who praised the Lord as few people ever have, blessing the heart of God with his songs and psalms. David was also a man of great faith. He went on to slay the giant Goliath on his way to becoming a mighty warrior for King Saul. God’s Spirit clearly was upon him.