2 Corinthians 13:5-9 The Message
5-9 Test yourselves to make sure you are solid in the faith. Don’t drift along taking everything for granted. Give yourselves regular checkups. You need firsthand evidence, not mere hearsay, that Jesus Christ is in you. Test it out. If you fail the test, do something about it. I hope the test won’t show that we have failed. But if it comes to that, we’d rather the test showed our failure than yours. We’re rooting for the truth to win out in you. We couldn’t possibly do otherwise.
We don’t just put up with our limitations; we celebrate them, and then go on to celebrate every strength, every triumph of the truth in you. We pray hard that it will all come together in your lives.
The Word of God for the Children of God.
Adeste Fidelis! Venite Adoremus! Dominum.
Gloria In Excelsis Deo! Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia! Amen.
We all make mistakes. We all have failures in our lives.
Do you define yourself by your failures? For your sake I fervently PRAY not.
Our failures don’t define us, it’s how we rise after we fall that defines us.
Failing is not bad.
When we try something new there is a very good chance it won’t go as planned.
Those with the courage to try, should definitely expect, will occasionally meet, with disappointment or even apparent failure.
When things don’t go as planned, we must take the time to pray, evaluate what went wrong with God and together, try to figure out what we need to do better.
With God, If we are willing to learn from our failures, they aren’t failures at all.
Isaiah 40:27-29Amplified Bible
27
Why, O Jacob, do you say, and declare, O Israel,
“My way is hidden from the Lord,
And the justice due me escapes the notice of my God”?
28
Do you not know? Have you not heard?
The Everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth
Does not become tired or grow weary;
There is no searching of His understanding.
29
He gives strength to the weary,
And to him who has no might He increases power.
The essential message from this passage from Isaiah is this:
The only difference between a failure and a lesson is the way we choose to look at it, the way we acknowledge the Presence and Sovereignty of God in our life.
Am I afraid of failure? Absolutely!
Are you afraid of failure? Probably – Absolutely!
Or do you an I always try to not make any mistakes? Probably – Absolutely!
Well, probably, absolutely, both mistakes and failures are a big part of our lives.
However, neither can or should be allowed or given permission to define us.
Why mistakes and failures cannot define us
1. Mistakes and Failures Should Not Be Personalized.
Both mistakes and failures are just events that naturally happen during our journey in life. Trust yourself, take risks, and make mistakes. Step out of your comfort zone and translate your failures as “God steps” leading unto success.
The way you choose to translate failure either moves you forward or holds you back. See everything as a God lesson from which you can gain something new.
2. Sometimes We All Suck in Life and That is OK.
Accept that it is inevitable, at some point, we all mess things up. We will make awful mistakes and appear less than what we wanted to. Truth is that we are all humans and nobody is perfect – we are all allowed to make mistakes and fail.
To fail and to make mistakes means you are trying to do something new and as long as you are alive, you always try to do your best.
Just pray to God because sometimes our best is not good enough, and that is OK.
3. If we Make Mistakes and we Fail it is Most Possible, With God, and through Christ, We will Eventually Make it Right or Succeed.
I used to have an Elementary School teacher who every time I would make a mistake (frequently) would tell me it is ok and that the only person who makes no mistakes is the only one who will never make an effort to do something.
Yes, making mistakes and failing means that there is room available for you to grow into something better and bigger.
It is most possible at some point, with God you will make it right and succeed.
4. You are Much More Than Your Mistakes or Your Failures.
Sometimes you have this tendency to call mistakes the things that happened that did not turn out the way you had planned them and wanted them to be.
Even if they were mistakes, accept them and do not let them define you and your value as an individual.
Sometimes those mistakes or failures exist to show you the way to something different, the way of life of our Savior Jesus, which would be a better fit for you.
5. Mistakes and Failure Can Teach You about God’s Forgiveness
Maybe the most valuable lesson we can take from our failures and mistakes is how to be gentle with ourselves, accept God’s mercy and to forgive ourselves.
We usually find it easier to forgive others than we find it to forgive ourselves.
Pray to God, the Father and God the Son and God the Holy Spirit ….
Fervently …. and Without Ceasing ….
Psalm 25:5-7 The Message
5 Take me by the hand;
Lead me down the path of truth.
You are my Savior, aren’t you?
6 Mark the milestones of your mercy and love, God;
Rebuild the ancient landmarks!
7 Forget that I sowed wild oats;
Mark me with your sign of love.
Plan only the best for me, God!
6. Through Mistakes We Can Overcome Your Fears
People are usually afraid of making mistakes or trying to do new things.
How could we ever come to understand whether something is a good fit for us or not without ever trying, without trial and error, without success or failure?
And how could we ever become good at something without being the total, inconceivably inept and clumsy amateur – that is, really bad at it at first?
We are all afraid, but through daring choices, running headlong into mistakes, and into full throttle failures, we push our lives forward and grow as persons.
Pray to God, the Father and God the Son and God the Holy Spirit ….
Fervently …. and Without Ceasing ….Psalm 27:12-14The Message
11-12 Point me down your highway, God;
direct me along a well-lighted street;
show my enemies whose side you’re on.
Don’t throw me to the dogs,
those liars who are out to get me,
filling the air with their threats.
13-14 I’m sure now I’ll see God’s goodness
in the exuberant earth.
Stay with God!
Take heart. Don’t quit.
I’ll say it again:
Stay with God.
7. If We Make Mistakes We Have No Regrets
Most people, as they mature, as they grow older and presumably wiser, think back on their lives, remember things they regret and wish they were not that coward and attempted to do this crazy thing they kept on thinking about.
If they had attempted it even though it might have succeeded in some measure, not turned out as well, at least they would have taken it out of their systems.
This choice that they never made would not return to their minds as regret.
Psalm 16:7-11The Message
7-8 The wise counsel God gives when I’m awake
is confirmed by my sleeping heart.
Day and night I’ll stick with God;
I’ve got a good thing going and I’m not letting go.
9-10 I’m happy from the inside out,
and from the outside in, I’m firmly formed.
You canceled my ticket to hell—
that’s not my destination!
11 Now you’ve got my feet on the life path,
all radiant from the shining of your face.
Ever since you took my hand,
I’m on the right way.
Failures and mistakes are all part of our journey in life.
We all make mistakes and we will all fail some time during our lives.
None of them should be taken personally.
When we meet them, treat them as stepping stones onto our narrow road to something, someone significantly bigger – Road to Salvation in Christ Jesus.
Identify them as what they are, events that occur in order to teach us a lesson.
Often, we can become stuck in the present by our past mistakes and failures.
How can we move forward effectively, learning and growing from our mistakes, and letting them go at the same time?
Learning how to forgive ourselves starts with accepting the grace which states quite clearly that God has already forgiven you through Christ’s atoning love.
We each need to better understand a few things when it comes to seeing failure through God’s eyes:
- We are human and will make mistakes; we all have weaknesses. Therefore, we must learn to live with our failures. Strong character is developed in accordance with how we deal with our mistakes and move on from them.
- Remember that failure is actually important for our spiritual development. Mistakes can teach us vital lessons about what to do differently in the future, which helps us avoid repeating them!
- It is from within our greatest weaknesses that Jesus is best able to teach and strengthen you: (2 Corinthians 12:7-10) Realize God’s Grace and Work is never limited by any of our failures. He does not reject us in our weakness but rather embraces us so that we can each receive strength to be all He intended us to be.
- God doesn’t hold our failures and mistakes over us; he gives us limitless grace and mercy. His love totally outweighs any mistake we have made, so we can begin to forgive yourself in this knowledge. And He designed you and me to have a loving relationship with him. Thus, “failure” in God’s sight is our living outside of the way He intended us live. Our biggest mistakes would be to reject our loving Creator and Savior. As such, this kind of failure is genuinely hard to achieve for those who genuinely strive every day to keep both their eyes on Him.
Our histories and our mistakes do not even minimally define who we are.
Our maximum identity is in Christ, not in any event or words said in the past.
Letting go and moving on from failure can be achieved through the love of God, which leads to our acceptance and pursuit of the person He intended us to be.
In the name of God, the Father and God the Son and God the Holy Spirit,
Let us Pray,
Psalm 23 The Message
23 1-3 God, my shepherd!
I don’t need a thing.
You have bedded me down in lush meadows,
you find me quiet pools to drink from.
True to your word,
you let me catch my breath
and send me in the right direction.
4 Even when the way goes through
Death Valley,
I’m not afraid
when you walk at my side.
Your trusty shepherd’s crook
makes me feel secure.
5 You serve me a six-course dinner
right in front of my enemies.
You revive my drooping head;
my cup brims with blessing.
6 Your beauty and love chase after me
every day of my life.
I’m back home in the house of God
for the rest of my life.
Adeste Fidelis! Venite Adoremus! Dominum.
Gloria! In Excelsis Deo! Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia! Amen.
Loving God, Living God, Loving Hope, Living Hope, Loving Living Life His Way! "Many things are possible for the person who has hope. Even more is possible for the person who has faith. And still more is possible for the person who knows how to love. But everything is possible for the person who practices all three virtues." - Brother Lawrence (1605-1691), Practicing the Presence of God (1692). 