My flesh and my heart may fail,
(Psalm 73:26, ESV)
but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.
What would you do if you knew you couldn’t fail? Wouldn’t it be great if you could set out on a new adventure with guaranteed success? You would be more bold. You would be more courageous. You would throw caution to the wind.
But failure is part of life. You cannot eliminate the chance of failure. Every person experiences failure at some point.
- A failed test
- A failed business
- A failed romance
- A failed interview
- A failed deal
And while there are failures along the way, there are successes too. But you experience success because you first experienced failure. When you see a person experience success, you often don’t see the hard lessons learned that helped them get to where they are.
Two years ago, my young son began drum lessons. He quickly grew frustrated when he could not play a new beat. He wanted to quit. But I would tell him that you can’t expect to be able to play a new beat the first time you try. You are going to make mistakes and mess up. So he kept trying. He would fail. He would fail again. But he kept at it. He would learn something new each time he failed. And after a short time, he was drumming away, having mastered a new beat.
Today, he plays the drums in our church band. I am proud of what he has accomplished. He doesn’t get as frustrated anymore when he struggles to master a new challenge. How about you?
- What have you learned from your failures?
- How have you grown from your failures?
- How has failure developed your trust in God?
- How has failure taught you perseverance?
- What are the successes you have experienced because of past failures?
We don’t need to fear failure when we are in Christ because failure does not define us. It is Christ who defines us. He took our every failure to the cross to redeem our failures. God will take our worst failures and use them for his good purposes.
One day your mind, body, and heart will fail in death. But it is only through this ultimate failure that we will come to experience the life God intended for us. It is only through temporal death that we discover eternal life. And it is Jesus that made this possible. For the believer, death is not to be feared but to be embraced. And if we can embrace the ultimate failure, what other failure can we not embrace?
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