Failure

Scriptures: Genesis 3:1-13, Romans 3:23

Failure Happens

“Failing forward is the ability to get back up after you’ve been knocked down, learn from your mistake, and move forward in a better direction.” — John Maxwell 

We have all failed and will fail again at one point or another. Failure has been in our world since the beginning with Adam and Eve. 

Failure is not something you can always avoid. Pride and deception are always waiting behind the door to trap us. The Apostle Paul affirmed this in his letter to the Romans, “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” (Romans 3:23 ESV)

When we fail, we usually go into two modes: Striving or hiding.

Striving for perfection and hiding from responsibility is both fear of failure in disguise.

Failure has a way of paralyzing our lives. We can fear it so strongly that we will hide from others and God. Like Adam and Eve, failure can bring shame, guilt, and a feeling of nakedness. 

We can neglect our responsibilities to work, lead our families, and love our neighbors because past failures paralyze us. It is an inability to move forward. 

We might also shift into an unhealthy life of perfectionism. We strive so hard to be perfect and precise in everything we do that we lose ourselves when it does not seem to work. 

Many of us want to look like we have it all together. Our kids need to be perfect. Our house must be spotless. And at the end of the day, we find ourselves exhausted from working to please people who do not care. 

So if failures happen, what are we to do? Because no one wants to fail. 

Most people understand the concept of an ROI (a return on investment). But what if we could get something John Maxwell describes as a ROF (a return on failure)? 

What if we could live in a way that allows our failures to bring a positive return? 

Instead of fearing failure, we learn from it. 

Instead of hiding, we take steps toward God. 

Instead of striving, we trust God. 

The Good News is that through Jesus, God can redeem our failures!

While there are many ways to fail, there are also ways to grow from failure. Over the next few days, we will look at the life of Peter and learn from his failures. 

Prayer:

Heavenly Father, I know I fall short often.

I need your help to overcome my failures.

I need your guidance.

Help me learn from my failures and mistakes. Amen!

Scriptures: Matthew 14:22-33, 1 Peter 1:1-9

Failure of Doubt 

“All the persons of faith I know are sinners, doubters, uneven performers. We are secure not because we are sure of ourselves but because we trust that God is sure of us.” — Eugene Peterson 

Have you ever had the courage to take a risk, and the moment you took that first step, you noticed how significant the risk was? How troubling were the waters? And you began to sink in doubt? 

This is what Peter faced in this passage of Scripture. He had a moment of courage and trusted God, but the waves seemed so high, the wind was so strong, and the risk seemed so overwhelming that he began to doubt. 

Peter failed to trust and believe Jesus fully. If we are honest, we can find ourselves in this place. We doubt our callings! We doubt the business venture we set out to do. We doubt that God truly loves us. We doubt the love of others. We doubt family and friends. 

Doubt is a trap that sinks us. When we doubt, we believe we are saving ourselves but we are drowning. 

The Apostle James said, “…Ask in faith, with no doubting, for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind” (James 1:6 ESV). 

So how do we overcome and learn from the failure of doubt? 

Keep your eyes on Jesus! Did Peter’s doubt doom him to drowning? Of course not! Jesus had his back. 

We will all struggle with doubt and may fail at times worse than others. But we must keep our eyes on Him! 

It was Jesus who called Peter out of the boat. He’s calling you out of your boat as well. Will you keep your eyes on Him? 

Keep moving forward! A small seed of doubt in our life can paralyze us. We pause! We hesitate. But God is calling us all to continue moving forward. Any step toward God is a good step, even if it seems like we are drowning in doubt. 

God believes in us more than we will ever know, and this is the confidence that comes from believing in Jesus. 

Prayer:

Heavenly Father, I have doubted you many times.

I have sunk beneath the waters, but you have always saved me.

Help me to keep my eyes on you every day.

I believe in you! I trust in you! Amen

Scriptures: Matthew 16:13-23, 1 Peter 5:5-7

Failure of Pride 

There is one vice of which no man in the world is free; which everyone in the world loathes when he sees it in someone else and of which hardly any people, except Christians, ever imagine that they are guilty themselves…The vice I am talking of is Pride or Self-Conceit: and the virtue opposite to it, in Christian morals, is called Humility.” —C.S. Lewis in Mere Christianity 

In today’s passage of Scripture, we see Jesus commend and correct Peter all in the same context. Peter proclaims that Jesus is the Messiah and is commended for this revelation. Jesus changes his name from Simon to Peter, which means ‘rock.’ 

After Peter makes his great proclamation, Jesus begins to explain that he will suffer and die at the hands of the religious leaders. Puffed up with pride, Peter rebukes Jesus for saying such things. Jesus then calls Peter Satan, which means ‘adversary.’ 

Peter goes from being the ‘Rock’ to the ‘Adversary’ all in the same conversation. 

Have you ever tried to tell God what to do? Maybe you have thought God doesn’t care about your situation. That you are more concerned than he is, this is pride. There are many forms of pride. It can hide in insecurity, boastfulness, and those who think they know it all. 

Pride often rejects help. It can flare up in anger and manipulation. It also makes people think they are better or worse than they actually are. The worst part about pride is that most people who struggle with it don’t know it. It’s the ultimate deceiver. 

Everyone struggles with pride. 

How do we overcome the failure of pride? 

Decide today to walk in humility. This simply means not thinking too highly or too lowly of yourself. We are all in need of God’s grace and mercy every day. 

The Apostle Paul wrote to the Romans, “I give each of you this warning: Don’t think you are better than you really are. Be honest in your evaluation of yourselves, measuring yourselves by the faith God has given us” (Romans 12:3 NLT). 

Ask for help. If pride often rejects help, then break its walls down by asking for it. You do not have to do life alone – you can ask for help. Begin investing in relationships where you can be real and honest because your destiny is tied to your relationships. 

When we choose to walk in humility and ask for help, we destroy the pride that so easily deceives us, and we can walk in the Spirit of God. 

Prayer:

Heavenly Father, I know I am prideful.

I know that it often blinds me from the truth.

I ask for help. Help me walk in humility.

Help me break down the walls of pride. Amen!

Scriptures: John 18:1-11, 1 Peter 3:8-9

Failure of Anger 

“The obsession to demand that things go the way we want them to go is one of the greatest bondages in human society today. People will spend weeks, months, even years in a perpetual stew because some little thing did not go as they wished. They will fuss and fume. They will get mad about it…Frankly, most things in life are not nearly as important as we think they are. Our lives will not come to an end if this or that does not happen.” —Richard Foster (the Celebration of Discipline) 

In today’s passage, we read about Peter’s violent outburst in the garden. Peter’s emotions failed him, and his anger got the best of him. 

Have you ever experienced your emotions getting the best of you? Perhaps, you were confronted with a circumstance and retaliated in a way you regret. You said something in anger, and you hurt someone. You repaid evil with evil. You yelled at your spouse or your kids. 

Anger is an emotion that is commonly rooted in a desire to control. Our kids refuse to listen; we lose control in anger. We don’t want to deal with a particular issue, so every small issue ticks us off. We want things to go our way, and when it doesn’t, we get mad. 

Peter had control issues. He always wanted to be right. He responded angrily when things did not go as he thought they should. His anger ultimately caused physical harm to someone else. 

We see that Peter eventually grows to overcome his emotions. “Be tenderhearted…Don’t repay evil with evil…Don’t retaliate with insults…” (1 Peter 3:8-9 NLT emphasis added). 

How do we overcome the failure of anger? 

Slow down and breathe!

James put it this way, “Understand this, my dear brothers and sisters: you must be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to get angry. Human anger does not produce the righteousness God desires.” (James 1:19-20 NLT) 

Anger is an outburst of emotion. We can make better decisions when we slow down, breathe, and give ourselves a chance to listen and see what is happening. 

Practice living in freedom!

This simply means adjusting your thoughts and actions to live free from having to control everything. It is another way to practice self-control. Freedom does not mean less responsibility but the ability to respond rightly. 

You can be free from the seething anger and frustrations you experience when others don’t act as you like or think they should. There is freedom in choosing to lay down the need to control people and outcomes. It is seeing from God’s perspective and not a merely human perspective. 

Prayer:

Heavenly Father, I know my emotions get the best of me.

Help me slow down and breathe.

Let me be free from my own control.

I put myself into your guiding hands. Amen!

Scriptures: Matthew 26:69-75, John 21:15-17

Failure of Denial 

“The Christian life is the lifelong practice of attending to the details of congruence—congruence between ends and means, congruence between what we do and the way we do it, congruence between what is written in Scripture and our living out what is written.” —Eugene Peterson 

In our reading today, we witness Peter do something we never thought he would do. We witness him do something he never thought he would do. He denied Christ, and he denied any relationship with him. He denied him three times. 

Earlier in the story, Peter made bold claims to Jesus. He claimed that he would never deny him. He said he was willing to die for him. And yet, in a series of stressful moments, Peter did not live up to his bold confessions. 

I wonder how often we don’t live up to our bold confessions about Christ. I am sure if a random person asked us if we were Christian, we would have no problem agreeing or saying, ‘Yes! I am a Christian!’ But do our lives match our claims? 

Peter was someone who had strong beliefs and convictions, though it took him a while to get his beliefs and actions to line up. Many of us may say we believe in Christ and say we follow him, but our words and actions tell different stories. 

This discrepancy in our life is a sort of Christian denial or hypocrisy that we must overcome. We often say the right things but live contrary to those words. 

Pressures at work can cause you to compromise your character. A stressful season can lead you to check out from your most important relationships. 

How do we overcome the failure of denial? 

In the last chapter of John’s Gospel, Jesus redeemed Peter’s failure of denial by asking him a question 3 times. “Simon Peter, do you love me?” Of course, Peter said yes all three times, but Jesus gave him a command. “Feed and take care of my sheep!”

Jesus said that Peter needed to align his love confession with his actions. 

Identify personal hypocrisy. We must identify areas where our actions and beliefs do not line up. Do we act one way at church and a different way at work? Do we tell our kids to do certain things that we personally don’t do? 

This will be an ongoing, lifelong process. We will constantly battle our own selfishness and hypocrisy. But it’s an important battle to fight. 

Embrace the mission. Jesus gave Peter a mission. “Feed my sheep.” Serve others. Embrace life as a Christ follower. When we embrace Christ’s mission, we have a goal for our life. It’s to honor and love God with our whole being. 

It’s more than a one-time event. The mission of Christ becomes our life. 

Prayer:

Heavenly Father, I know I can often be a hypocrite.

I really do believe in you; help me live it.

Help me to align my actions with my beliefs.

I embrace my life as a Christ follower. Amen!