Daily Devotional For Saturday, January 20, 2024

I pray your day has been going well for you, even if you just woke up. Has there ever been a time in your life you felt like a failure? There was this persistent and overshadowing cloud of failure, disappointment in yourself, regret, and a desire or wish to go back in time and do something differently? I have had those feelings. 

I have been told that “failure is expressed as the inability to perform or act according to expectations. The question then is: whose expectations do we feel we are not meeting? God’s? Our spouse’s? Our children’s? Our church’s? Our best friend’s? Or our own?  Or a combination of several of these? The Bible tells us this in Leviticus 19:2, “You shall be holy, for I the Lord your God am holy” (ESV). The Apostle Peter repeats this in 1 Peter 1:16. We all sin and have to live with the brokenness and consequences it brings. 

For myself, I know that many times my sense of failure is due to my conclusion that I cannot live up to some preconceived, unfair, or unreal expectation set by myself or others. And how I cope with it, is, I beat myself up. I have come to conclude that few feelings are more enslaving than the feeling of feeling trapped in not being all I feel I should be.

I read this quote by Teddy Roosevelt on-line:

"The person who succeeds is not the one, who holds back, fearing failure, nor, the one who never fails . . . but rather the one who moves on in spite of failure. Far better to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs, even though checkered by failure, than to take rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy much nor suffer much because they live in the grey twilight that knows not victory or defeat.” 

You can find the actual link to Teddy Roosevelt’s quote here: https://goalhabits.com/2019/07/30/success-quote-on-failure-5/. We all remember how Jesus warned Peter that Peter would betray Him three times. Peter protested that he would never do such a thing. At the time, I believe Peter really believed there was no way he could ever do that. But Peter forgot who was telling him this — God Himself in human flesh. (The very same God who knows all past, present and future.)

You can read about it in these Gospel accounts: Luke 22:55–62; Matthew 26:69–75; Mark 14:66–72. What I love most is Luke 22:32, Jesus said to Peter, 'But I have prayed for you that your faith may not fail. And when you have turned again, strengthen your brothers” (ESV). What I love about this is that Jesus did not see Peter simply betraying Him three times, Jesus and expressed belief in who Peter would become. And you know the rest of the story, as radioman Paul Harvey used to say. Peter wrote two epistles and was martyred by Rome through being crucified upside down.

After Peter denied Jesus three times, read what it ways in Luke 22:61-62, “ And the Lord turned and looked at Peter. And Peter remembered the saying of the Lord, how He had said to him, “Before the rooster crows today, you will deny Me three times.” ⁶² And he went out and wept bitterly” (ESV). For his failure, Peter kept crucifying himself over and over until the Resurrection. 

If we were all honest, we all have battle the feelings of personal failure. Charles R. Swindoll writes this in this link: https://jerryrmeek.com/failing-forward/.

“Have you ever heard of the notion of failing forward? Charles Swindoll says:

“Tough times don’t make you. They reveal you.” I believe that sometimes failure is the very thing that can propel you forward, but it’s your perspective and response that will determine if failure sets you back or pushes you forward.”

How do we deal with failure, even personal failure?:

1. Don’t panic. Don’t freak out. We all blow it. The key is: is this an intentional and consistent failure? If it is, then seek help. Remember, failure is an event, not a person.
2. Acknowledge your part or role in it. Don’t fixate solely on the failure or your part in it. See it but move on to what is the next baby step to stop the hemorrhaging. We bleed emotionally when we are overcome by personal failure. 
3. Pray to God, seek guidance from His Word, and encouragement from other committed Christ followers. 
4. Pray to God, seek guidance from His Word, and encouragement from other committed Christ followers. Look at Proverbs 12:15, “The way of a fool is right in his own eyes, but a wise man listens to advice” (ESV).
5. Then take that next baby step. This helps you deal with your failure as a stepping-stone, not a tombstone. Be willing to ask for help from a godly Christian friend or family member. The Bible says this in Ecclesiastes 4:9-10, 12, "Two are better than one, because they have a good reward for their toil. (10) For if they fall, one will lift up his fellow. But woe to him who is alone when he falls and has not another to lift him up! . . .  (12) And though a man might prevail against one who is alone, two will withstand him—a threefold cord is not quickly broken” (ESV).
6. If you are so overwhelmed, bitter and negative, then seek wisdom from a godly and biblical Christian counselor. 

Scripture to Meditate On: Proverbs 24:16, “For the righteous falls seven times and rises again, but the wicked stumble in times of calamity” (ESV).

Prayer to Pray: “Dear Jesus, I know that I sin, but I do not want to be defined by my sin. I want to be defined by You, as You did with Peter. Jesus, I do not want to make excuses for my sin and failures. I do not want to play them down nor rationalize them. I know that if I rationalize them I am making up “rational lies” about them. I want to face them and I want You to help me fix them. Jesus, show me how to learn from my failures and how to turn them from tombstones into stepping stones. Help me not to get so focused on my failure, that I become impotent towards your will for my life. Instead, help me move forward for Your glory so that I am a blessing to others and a witness for Your kingdom. In Jesus’ name, Amen.”