Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me.
Cast me not away from thy presence; and take not thy holy spirit from me.
Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation; and uphold me with thy free spirit.
Psalm 51: 10-12
Tag: forgiveness
Failure Is NOT Fatal . . . IF – Part 4
Each of us will at one time or another fail the LORD, and when we do, usually it will be because we have taken our eyes off Jesus. What a perfect time for Satan to tell us that we are finished and our future is destroyed!
That is not God’s message to us.
One of our greatest goals is never to fall. Our greatest glory, however, is not in never falling, but in our Savior Who never fails, Who holds us up, and Who lifts us each time we fall.
We may not be able to reclaim the loss, undo the damage, or reverse the consequences. However, our beautiful Savior restores us, and we can make a new start. We can be wiser, more sensitive, renewed by the Holy Spirit, and more determined to do right.
The best part is Peter’s story does not end in Luke 22:62.
Peter did not have to live the rest of his life with a heavy burden of sorrow and regret.
Instead, after he grieved, Peter ministered to the others grieving over their failures.
Later, Jesus asked Peter to become a leader of the church.
“So when they had eaten breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, ‘Simon, son of Jonah, do you love* Me more than these?’
“He said to Him, ‘Yes, Lord; You know that I love** You.’
“He said to him, ‘Feed My lambs.’ He said to him again a second time, ‘Simon, son of Jonah, do you love* Me?’
“He said to Him, ‘Yes, Lord; You know that I love** You.’
“He said to him, ‘Tend My sheep.’ He said to him the third time, ‘Simon, son of Jonah, do you love** Me?’
“Peter was grieved because He said to him the third time, ‘Do you love** Me?’ And he said to Him, ‘Lord, You know all things; You know that I love** You.’
“Jesus said to him, ‘Feed My sheep. Most assuredly, I say to you, when you were younger, you girded yourself and walked where you wished; but when you are old, you will stretch out your hands, and another will gird you and carry you where you do not wish.’” John 21:15-18
Jesus had a plan and purpose for Peter. He has a plan and purpose for each of us in spite of our failure.
Failure is not fatal if:
We recognize that everyone fails,
We remember that God’s love and forgiveness are not dependent upon our success,
We learn and grow from our failures, and
We put our failures behind us and go on.
We already know that we need to give our sin to God, but we can do more than that.
When we sin and fail the Lord, we should not give up. We should repent, get back up, and try again. He still has a plan to use us.
Rebuke Satan when he condemns you as a failure.
He is a liar.
Take your eyes off yourself and look at Jesus, saying, “I’m going rise up and keep trying. With God’s grace and the power of the Holy Spirit, I’m going to let God change me from one degree of glory unto another into the image of Christ. I will keep my eyes on Jesus, the Author and Finisher of my faith, the One Who is able to keep me from falling.”
If you have fallen, won’t you look unto the Lord Jesus, reach up to Him, and let Him put you back on the Way again? Confess and repent of that sin that made you stumble. Ask God forgive you and renew you with His Holy Spirit so that you will have power to be His witness again.
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*agape love, God-like love, as in 1 Corinthians 13
**phileo love, brotherly love
Peter was upset, here, because of the dwindling degrees of love that Jesus was asking him about. Remember His huge vows of loyalty, loyalty greater than all the others, now squelched by his realization of his humanity, of reality, of how much Jesus knew and how little he knew, how quickly and predictably he failed. May we all recognize our frailty, stop living in denial, and learn to cling to Him ___________________
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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
Failure Is NOT Fatal . . . IF – Part 2
Failure Is NOT Fatal IF . . . We remember that God’s love and forgiveness are not dependent upon our success.
No matter how you have failed, no matter what sin you have allowed into your life, the Savior who died for you still loves you.
He loved you and died for you when you were His enemy. Why would He love you less now? Your failure doesn’t change his love.
The story of Christianity is the story of failed men and women who found new futures through the forgiveness of Christ.
In Luke 22:61 we find a single sentence of explosive power: “The Lord turned and looked at Peter.” What kind of look did Jesus give to Peter? We do not know, but we do know Peter broke down afterwards.
He went out and wept bitterly.
It is to Peter’s credit that all that the Lord had to do was look at him to bring him to the place of recognition of what he had done.
That is the beginning of repentance.
No matter how effective the look of Jesus, it would have been wasted on Peter if Peter had not been looking at Jesus.
But Peter was looking at Jesus.
Jesus had predicted a turning point for Peter back in Luke 22:32: “But I have prayed for you, Simon [Peter], that your faith may not fail. And when you have turned back, strengthen your brothers.”
This was that turning point, for it was at that point that verse 61 tells us, “ . . . Peter remembered the word of the Lord, how He had said to him, ‘Before the rooster crows, you will deny Me three times.'”
Jesus knew Peter would fail. He knew Peter was not as strong as he thought he was. Still, Jesus loved Peter and prayed for him.
Jesus also knows us, loves us, and prays for us.
I am going to include the next passage of Scripture as if it were a poem, because it is so beautiful:
What, then, shall we say in response to this?
If God is for us, who can be against us?
He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all–
how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things?
Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen?
It is God who justifies.
Who is he that condemns?
Christ Jesus, who died–
more than that, who was raised to life–
is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us.
Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?
Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword?
As it is written:
“For your sake we face death all day long;
we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.”
No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.
For I am convinced that
neither death nor life,
neither angels nor demons,
neither the present nor the future,
nor any powers,
neither height nor depth,
nor anything else in all creation,
will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Romans 8:31-39
Failure Is NOT Fatal IF… We remember that God’s love and forgiveness are not dependent upon our success.
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God’s Dishonor Roll – What to Do, Part 1
He’s out to getcha!
“Christ died for our sins once and for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God.” 1 Peter 3:18
Jesus’ death is God’s way of saying, “Even though you have failed me many times, even though you’ve sinned, even though you’ve made mistakes, I still love you! I still want you!”
Sometimes we might think, “I have failed so many times, I don’t see how God could work in my life. I keep sinning the same ol’ sin and my sin seems so great, I feel like I’m disqualified even from the dishonor roll.”
You need to understand grace.
Grace is the power of God working in you, through you, with you, and for you. “Faithful is He who has called you, and He will do it.” 1 Thessalonians 5:24 He did it for Abraham, Moses, David, the disciples—and He died to do it for you.
The wonderful truth is that God uses imperfect people to accomplish His perfect will.
He uses flawed people to accomplish His flawless will.
If you’re willing to let Jesus have His way in your life, God will use you to be a blessing to others, just like he used all the others on the dishonor roll.
You need to understand that God never tires of forgiving us.
Even if I have to ask God for forgiveness 5 times a day for the rest of my life, if I am sincere about it, He will forgive me.
How do I know that?
1 John 1:9 says, “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just, and will forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”
To fully grasp the meaning of this verse, we must realize the wisdom of God in placing His Son close to Greece, where the language has an extra verb tense we call “aorist”. The aorist tense means “keep on keeping on”.
So the above verse, in aorist tense, really says: If we keep on confessing our sins, He keeps on being faithful and just, and will keep on forgiving us our sins and keep on cleansing us from all unrighteousness.
I need that.
Notice, also, the word “all”.
God is willing to forgive ALL our sin.
Why?
He loves us. Even though we sin, God wants to use us if we repent.
Once we realize we have sinned, we need to confess and ask God to forgive our sins. We can’t just say, “God loves failures, so I’ll just keep sinning and let God clean up after me.”
“What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? By no means! We died to sin; how can we live in it any longer? Or don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.” Romans 6:1-4
We have to give our failures to God. We have to say “Lord, I sinned! I blew it! And I confess and repent from the bottom of my heart.”
“He who conceals his sins does not prosper, but whoever confesses and renounces them finds mercy.” Proverbs 28:13
Have you noticed the two words, “confess” and “repent”? They are both vitally important, and most folks think they are the same, but they are not, therefore an explanation is in order.
Repentance: This is turning around, turning your back on your sin, hating it enough to change or to want to change. It is the giant, “OH NO!” that accompanies our realizing the consequences of what we have done.
Confession: God does not forgive excuses; He forgives sin. If you tell Him all about how it was the other guy’s fault or how you couldn’t help it because of your headache, you are not confessing your sin.
Listen to the prayer of David after He committed his great sins:
“Have mercy on me, O God, according to your unfailing love; according to your great compassion blot out my transgressions. Wash away all my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin. For I know my transgressions, and my sin is always before me. Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight, so that you are proved right when you speak and justified when you judge. Surely I was sinful at birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me. Surely you desire truth in the inner parts; you teach me wisdom in the inmost place. Cleanse me with hyssop, and I will be clean; wash me, and I will be whiter than snow. Let me hear joy and gladness; let the bones you have crushed rejoice. Hide your face from my sins and blot out all my iniquity. Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me. Do not cast me from your presence or take your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of your salvation and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me. Then I will teach transgressors your ways, and sinners will turn back to you. Save me from bloodguilt, O God, the God who saves me, and my tongue will sing of your righteousness. O Lord, open my lips, and my mouth will declare your praise. You do not delight in sacrifice, or I would bring it; you do not take pleasure in burnt offerings. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.” Psalm 51:1-17
How does God respond to people who have sinned? How does He respond to our failures?”
Mark gives us a clue, on the morning of the Resurrection:
As they entered the tomb, they saw a young man dressed in a white robe sitting on the right side, and they were alarmed. “Don’t be alarmed,” he said. “You are looking for Jesus the Nazarene, who was crucified. He has risen! He is not here. See the place where they laid him. But go, tell his disciples and Peter, ‘He is going ahead of you into Galilee. There you will see him, just as he told you.'” Mark 16:5-7
In other words, even though the disciples sinned, even though they had lost faith, even though they had abandoned Him, Jesus wanted to be with them!
He wants to be with us and use us, too!
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God’s Dishonor Roll
I wonder how many have never done anything wrong.
How many could stand before God and say, “I have never made a mistake. I have never failed at anything.”?
The truth is that we’ve all made mistakes, experienced failure, sinned, falling short of God‘s plan, God’s intention for us.
For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. Romans 3:23
“Failure” is the one label we don’t want.
We fear failure.
If I fail what will happen to me?
What will other people think? Will I be rejected? Will anybody love me?
Will God send me to hell?
The fear of failure is universal, causing enormous amounts of stress.
Students fear failing a class.
Parents fear failing their children.
Others fear failing the Lord, failing in Christianity, failing to live sinless lives.
If these examples describe your feelings, I have good news for you: You are in good company.
Some of the Bible’s greatest men and women of faith were failures. If God had a dishonor roll, it would include MANY well-known Believers.
For instance, in the book of Genesis, Abraham, the man of faith, lied to government officials, two times, about his relationship with Sarah. Both times, he introduced her as his sister instead of his wife, because he was afraid that he would be killed because of being married to such a beautiful woman.
Consequently, poor Sarah was taken into a harem each time and each time, God had to rescue her from potential adultery.
After the second time, God could have said, “ABRAHAM, YOU ARE FIRED!
“You obviously don’t trust me to save you. You obviously feel that lying to people is necessary to save your own skin.
“I cannot work with you anymore.”
But God forgave Abraham both times. And the Lord went on to do amazing things in his life. Even though Abraham showed the fear of unbelief instead of faith on these occasions, God still made a covenant with Abraham, and Abraham learned to believe God. God accounted this faith as if Abraham were righteous.
And the scripture was fulfilled that says, “Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness,” and he was called God’s friend. James 2:23
More tomorrow.
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Sunday Scriptures – Celebration
. . . the father said to his servants,”Quick! Bring the best robe and put it on him. Put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. Bring the fatted calf and kill it. Let’s have a feast and celebrate. For this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found. So they began to celebrate. –Luke 15:22-24
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