Lessons from Failure

Why do you think the Bible is filled with so many stories of failure? I mean if we were to write a book and wanted it to be popular with people everywhere, wouldn't we want to keep out all the mistakes rather than include them? Precisely why the Bible isn't written by man, it was written by God.

God wrote about failures so that we can be careful and learn from the mistakes others had made and realize that God works with people who fail.

If you look at all the disciples that followed Jesus, one sticks out more so than all the others. Which do you think of? If your like me, it's Peter. We can all remember Peter's failures more than most because we can relate to a guy like Peter. He is like us.

Let us look at the 7 steps that lead to Peters failure but also to our own failures as well.

1. Self Confidence ~ Matthew 26:33. We take the story of Peter's denial because it is so memorable. First because Peter considered himself the most loyal and faithful of all of Jesus' disciples. He did this on more than one occasion. Yet here with Jesus, Peter declares that he will never fail Jesus. "Even if all fall away on account of you, I never will."

Peter acted this way because he was self confident in his abilities to handle some of Jesus' difficult questions and come up with the right answer. Not always did Peter answer correctly. It is realistic to assume that Peter often led most of the discussions among the disciples.

Even when Jesus tells Peter otherwise on this occasion, Peter argues with Jesus. "I tell you the truth," Jesus answered, "this very night, before the rooster crows you will disown me three times."

But Peter declared, "Even if I have to die with you, I will never disown you." (Matthew 26:34-35.

We, as Christians, do great at guarding the areas in our life where we are weak, it's our strong areas where we are the most vulnerable. We will fall most of the times, in the areas where we think we are the strongest.

Abraham failed in his strongest area, his faith. While taking his wife traveling in Egypt, he suggests to his wife that if anyone asks, she is his sister. He lied about her being his wife. Why?
Because he didn't trust God enough even though their were times before where his faith passed. He got over confident and felt he could do it without God's help.

Samson failed in his strongest area, his physical strength. His was a gift from God and on numerous occasions put his faith in God and God allowed him to use his strength to defeat the enemies of God. However, it was Delilah who gained his confidence and shared his secret to the Philistines. Yet when Samson awoke, he failed to go to God first and tried in vain to use his own strength to defeat the Philistines and failed.

Joshua and the walls of Jericho failed in trusting God always. God told Joshua exactly how to bring down the walls of Jericho, and Joshua succeeded by following in God's will. Yet when Joshua got confident and he felt he could tackle a smaller city without God's help, he failed.

We need to remember one very important thing.

"When I try, I fail. Yet when I trust God, I succeed."

We need to be seeking God daily in all things, not just when life hands us a storm to deal with. Without Him, I can do nothing is a great Bible verse, yet how many of us live our lives like this every day?

Notice that in the word Pride, the letter I is the middle letter? Once self confidence is reigning in our life, it will lead to...

2. Prayerlessness. We simply stop bothering God with the small stuff and save all the bigger stuff for Him to deal with. So we simply stop praying. It is guaranteed to lead to a mess every time.

"We have not, because we ask not." James 4:2

Let us not forget to involve God in everything in our life, the good, the bad, and even the ugly! If you are persistent in prayer, that is where the real power is. If we give up prayer, then it leads to...
3. Busyness. Peter cut off the ear of the guard because he failed to stay awake when Jesus asked him to. He reacted instead of responded. We have a tendency to do this as well. We judge people based on how busy they are doing the work of God as if that is a spiritual indicator of how close they are to God. We relate to the "what's" rather than the "hows" of what people are doing. Our lives should be a testament to our relationships with God. Jesus fixes Peter's mistake by healing the guard so even if they were to say it happened, there is now no longer any proof of it.

4. Following at a Distance or Cooling Off follows busyness. No one ever backslides in one day. Its a slow work in progress starting with step one. It takes place over a period of time. You move away from having God as your priority. You don't come to church like you used to. You pass up the Sunday service, the Bible study you were part of, in hopes of doing something else like hanging out with friends, family or even working. If you continue on this path it will lead to...

5. Warming Yourself By The Enemies Fire! Based on the coldness going on in our lives at this point, things that we wouldn't normally consider start to look a little fun. Perhaps we take a route we shouldn't. We stop by the bar to talk to friends and perhaps we will offer to take them to church next Sunday, but the conversation never gets around to that. Keep this up and it will lead to ...

6. Walking Through the Enemies Fire. Now that you are actually in the bar, having that conversation with our friends, he offers you a beer. After all the Bible doesn't say you can't have a beer right? So what's the harm? Keep this up and you will find yourself at the bottom of the ladder and ...

7. Sitting in the Enemies Fire. You are now in a miserable place. Like Peter when Jesus' truths about his denial came true upon the rooster crowing, poor Peter was overwhelmed and left weeping. Peter was in the last step of the ladder of failure. How many of us have been on this very path? Yet when Jesus rose from the dead, He asked for Peter. Why? Because Jesus knew poor Peter was doomed with despair and depressed. He reached out to him personally because He forgave Peter. He had hope that Peter would be able to not only recover but could share what it is like to fall so far and yet come back due to forgiveness of God.

From the time that Jesus talked with Peter on the shores of Gailee, Peter was completely humbled and not the same self confident, arrogant person he was at the beginning. He was changed. So can you. We just need to turn our lives back to Jesus and watch out for the steps to failure. God put them there for a reason, to keep us on guard of our strengths, which will lead to our failures! Guard them well!