“For though the righteous fall seven times, they rise again, but the wicked stumble when calamity strikes.” (Proverbs 24:16 NIV)

Have you ever called failure your friend? I didn’t think so, and neither did I until recently. Most of us wouldn’t readily embrace failure as our friend and certainly not our BFF.

Maybe we should reconsider our friendships. 

The goals you have set for this year, the resolutions you have made, will they be fulfilled or completed on December 31, 2022? If not, you failed! This statement probably rings true because we didn’t take the time to analyze why our resolutions and goals were left unfinished in years past. 

Is failure a bad thing? Definitely not! Failure can be your best buddy. It is a necessary ingredient in pursuing our dreams and aspirations.

David prayed in Psalm 20:4 that God would give us the desires of our heart and make all of our plans succeed. That’s a tricky prayer, my friend.

This request is a prayer from the heart of God. God wants all of His plans for our lives to succeed. And this is why He allows us to fail. Failure is as natural and beneficial as breathing. Listen to this quote from Romans 3:23, “For everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God’s glorious standard.” That’s failure, my friend; failure to live up to life’s highest expectations.

Failure can enhance and enrich our lives in many ways. How, you might ask? By helping us:

• See from a different perspective.
• Recognize the need for strong boundaries.
• Acknowledge our need for healthy relationships.
• And by helping us make wiser decisions.

Let’s take David as our example of a person who achieved greatness due to his failures. David committed what many of us would call gross sin when he committed adultery with Bathsheba. After he failed to live up to the character of a “man of God,” David analyzed the situation. He thought about what he had done. He called sin, sin and repented of his failure. David didn’t try to lessen the severity of what he had done by blaming someone else or calling it something other than sin. 

Please take note, David took ownership of his failures.

Because he was repentant and took ownership of his sins, God called David “A Man After His Own Heart.” Failure caused David to analyze his sin, learn from his mistakes, and recognize his need for God. David rebounded from his failures and went on to serve as the greatest King of Israel. He penned many words to inspire us to live a life that glorifies God.

On the other hand, Adam played the blame game when he sinned. Even though his failure threw the whole world into sin and chaos, all of us can learn valuable lessons from his failure. Adam learned that…

• He couldn’t hide his sin from God.
• He could grieve God’s heart. 
• He couldn’t rectify the situation in his strength.
• Blaming others doesn’t get you off the hook.

Yes, failure can be our friend. We need to fail if we are going to grow and mature in our personal lives and the things of God. We can’t always look at other people’s failures and avoid making mistakes. You, yes, you, need to fail sometimes, and God knows it. That’s why He doesn’t rescue us from all situations that could and sometimes cause us to fail.

If we are going to succeed in our future endeavors, we must analyze and learn from our past mistakes.

My friend, failure is not fatal. We can fall forward then proceed to achieve our goals and aspirations.

Remember, the righteous fall seven times, but we rise again!

Lord, help me to recognize my failures, learn from them and draw closer to You because of them. Amen!

Posted by on Wednesday, January 19th, 2022 @ 10:00AM
Categories: Carethatv, Empowering, Encouragement, Inspirational
Tags: aspirations, boundaries, David, failure, friend, friendship, goals, Prayer