How God Can Use Our Failures, Part 2
“My troubles turned out all for the best – they forced me to learn from Your textbook.”
Psalm 119:71 (MSG)
Here are three facts of life that will encourage you:
You’ve failed at something in the past.
You’re failing at some things right now.
You will fail at stuff in the future.
You may be thinking, “Wow, thanks so much for that vote of confidence! You’re so encouraging!” But it is encouraging to know that failure is really one of the greatest gifts God can give us. What we think may be the worst thing that can happen, God can turn out for our best. God can use our failure to lead us to our destiny if we let Him. I love the way the Psalmist puts it in Psalm 119:41 (MSG). He writes, “My troubles turned out all for the best – they forced me to learn from Your textbook.” If we didn’t fail, we wouldn’t look to God’s Word for help.
The Bible offers us examples of how God used failure in the lives of people to give us hope and to teach us how God uses our failures to lead us to our destiny. I call this failing forward. The first consideration to fail forward we looked at yesterday was to realize that our failure is never final! It is God, not our failure, that writes the final chapter. What we may think is the end of our story may, indeed, just be the beginning of what God wants to do in our lives. He can turn our scars into stars.
When we realize that failure is never final, we’re ready for the second consideration. Remember the life-changing lessons from failures. This is where God begins to accomplish His deeper work in us. In Proverbs 11:2 (NIV), the Bible says, “When pride comes, then comes disgrace, but with humility comes wisdom.” Failure has a way of knocking the pride out of our lives. The truth is we must face our failures to learn from them, and some lessons can only be learned by being burned. Have you ever been burned? It hurts, whether it’s physical or emotional. It teaches us a valuable lesson. It humbles us. But it’s the broken and contrite heart; the Bible says that God is drawn toward. Psalm 34:18 (NIV) says, “The LORD is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit.”
One of the great life-changing lessons from failure is that God gives us the freedom to fail. The freedom to fail is the freedom to grow. It’s natural to have a fear of failure. We all do. The trouble with the fear of failure, though, is that it can paralyze you. It creates indecision. It’s better to try and fail than to not try at all. If God gives us the freedom to fail, we need to do the same for our kids. It’s a disservice to rescue your kids all the time. Failure can be God’s way of pushing us into His grace. Once burned, twice learned. Tomorrow we’ll consider another way God uses failure in our lives to accomplish His greater purpose.
Another important part of your daily devotional is spending time with God in prayer. The Woodlands Church Prayer Board lists prayer requests submitted by our members and provides a way to send them some encouragement by using a button on the page to let them know that you prayed for them. Whether you use the Prayer Board, or pray from your heart, the goal is to build the habit of incorporating prayer into your quiet time.
Need prayer yourself? Let us know by submitting a prayer request on the Woodlands Church Prayer Board.