Failure Is NOT Fatal . . . IF – Part 3

Failure Is Not Fatal IF… We learn and grow from our failures.

Take advantage of your failure!

Don’t waste it; learn all you can from it.

Every bitter experience can teach us something.

How did you learn to ride a bike? You got on and you fell off, over and over.

Falling was painful but you learned a little with each try. Finally, you got on it and stayed on it for five seconds, then ten seconds. Eventually, you succeeded because you kept trying. However, if something unexpected caused you to fall again, you got on again.

Failure is the refusal to get back on that bike.

“For though a righteous man falls seven times, he rises again.” Proverbs 24:16 Even the righteous stumble. Those who are earnestly trying to live a godly life, fall. They mess up and they sin. They don’t quit; they get back up and continue.

One trademark of those who serve God is that they learn, repent, and get up after falling. Some people think their mistakes are unforgivable, but the Bible says, “Surely the arm of the LORD is not too short to save, nor his ear too dull to hear.” Isaiah 59:1

When you fall, reach up, and slip your hand back into the hand of the One able to keep you! (Jude 24-25)

Failure is not the time to give up. When we fall, we reach up to the Father, and let Him pull us back into active life, back into wholeness, completeness, and healing.

Some of us have failed to do that. Oh, we are saved, but we still have haunting memories like a black cloud. We failed. We know it, and we know others remember it. We need to take our eyes off ourselves and our failure and look up at Jesus.

Everyone has failed. The greatest failure is failure to learn and grow from the experience. People who serve God simply accept God’s grace and forgiveness. They understand and accept that God has promised to forgive, and forgiveness becomes reality for them.

You are never a failure until you give up.

Sorrow is not necessarily fatal; it can mean a new beginning. It can be part of repenting, learning, and getting back up. Peter’s weeping was a healthy response to sin and failure. (Luke 22:62)

“Yet now I am happy, not because you were made sorry, but because your sorrow led you to repentance. For you became sorrowful as God intended and so were not harmed in any way by us. Godly sorrow brings repentance that leads to salvation and leaves no regret, but worldly sorrow brings death.” 2 Corinthians 7:9-10

I mentioned taking a look at another person this week: Judas. Judas responded to his failure, betraying Jesus, with worldly sorrow instead of godly sorrow.

“When Judas, who had betrayed him, saw that Jesus was condemned, he was seized with remorse and returned the thirty silver coins to the chief priests and the elders. ‘I have sinned,’ he said, ‘for I have betrayed innocent blood.’”

“‘What is that to us?’ they replied. ‘­­That’s your responsibility.’ So Judas threw the money into the temple and left. Then he went away and hanged himself.” Matthew 27:3-5

Judas made a huge mistake and miscalculation by betraying Jesus.

His reputation and name was ruined.

He quit trying.

He failed to reach up to God.

He failed to look at Jesus for forgiveness.

He failed to repent and get up again.

He failed to learn and grow from his failure.

Judas is an example of how not to respond to failure. He never gave Jesus a chance. He could have had a wonderful testimony of Christ’s forgiveness as did Saul, who had persecuted Christ, then repented, was saved, born again of the Spirit, and became Paul, the writer of most of the New Testament.

Failure Is NOT Fatal IF… We Learn and Grow From our Failures