Overcoming Failure

Having dealt with others through the years who had trouble with overcoming their failures and moving on, as well as having personal issues with failures in my life that I’ve had difficulty overcoming, I have some experience in the problem of letting go of our past failures and moving beyond them. Some things that we have failed at in our lives are easy to overcome but some can take a lengthy time and cause much grief for us to overcome. Whether it’s caused by our own personal failures or the failures of others, this can be a heavy burden to carry around if we’re not able to triumph over the failures.

Romans 7:15-20 (New International Version)
I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good. As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me. I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. For what I do is not the good I want to do; no, the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it.

Recently, I talked with a gentleman about what the Bible has to say about dealing with the difficulties that we all face in life. Those difficulties loom in front of us like mountains to be climbed and overcome. God doesn’t want to see you overcome by difficulties, He wants to see you successful in life.

Success in God’s eyes does not depend on making a lot of money or making it to the top in your career. Success in God’s eyes is found by fulfilling God’s purpose for your life. It’s OK to want to have that kind of success in life and even pray for it.

Psalm 118:25 (NIV)
O LORD, save us; O LORD, grant us success.

Yet there will be times in each of our lives when we fail. There will be times when you feel like giving up. Many successful people in the Bible had times when felt discouraged, when they had failed, when they had not lived up to God’s requirements. The important thing is not to give up when you fail. Failure for the believer is not the end, but an opportunity to find a fresh start from God.

Proverbs 24:16 (NIV)
Though a righteous man falls seven times, he rises again, but the wicked are brought down by calamity.

The point of this verse is not that the righteous man never falls, but that the righteous man rises again, he comes back. The wicked on the other hand, fall and can’t recover. Think about your own life. What failure hangs over your head? What situations or circumstances haven’t worked out as you would have liked? No matter what you’ve failed at God wants you to rebound from that failure and find His success in life.

This is for everyone who has failed in life and that includes all of us. God wants to give you a fresh start today.

Luke 5: 1-7 (NIV)
One day as Jesus was standing by the Sea of Galilee, with the people crowding around Him and listening to the word of God, He saw at the water's edge two boats, left there by the fishermen, who were washing their nets. He got into one of the boats, the one belonging to Simon, and asked him to put out a little from shore. Then He sat down and taught the people from the boat.

When He had finished speaking, He said to Simon Peter, "Put out into deep water, and let down the nets for a catch."

Simon answered, "Master, we've worked hard all night and haven't caught anything. But because you say so, I will let down the nets."

When they had done so, they caught such a large number of fish that their nets began to break. So they signaled their partners in the other boat to come and help them, and they came and filled both boats so full that they began to sink.

Simon Peter and his fellow fisherman had been out fishing all night but hadn’t caught anything. Fishing was normally done at night so that the fish couldn’t see the nets in the darkness. However, a long night of casting nets into the water, rowing to numerous fishing spots, Peter had to admit that the trip was a failure. He would have nothing at all to show for all his hard work, nothing to take home to feed his family, let alone to sell in the market. Yet just a few hours later that same boat with the same fisherman, fishing at the wrong time of day would catch a plethora (I love that word) of fish. What made the difference between the first and second fishing trips? What keys can we learn from this story about overcoming failure?

Victory is God’s will for the believer’s life. However, sometimes we can find ourselves falling repeatedly into the same sin. As a result, our prayer life is marked by our broken promises to end wrongdoing. We tell the Lord that we long to do what is right, but often our desire diminishes when virtue is no longer convenient, pleasurable, or profitable. Many believers get angry with God for withholding victory, but sin is always our choice, not God’s.

If a “guilty” conscience and misery are the result of our decision to sin, then why do we continue in our wrongdoing? One reason is we have incomplete repentance. It is possible for us to experience grief, embarrassment, and shame over sin without being truly repentant. The reason is that penitence isn’t a matter of weeping or feeling guilty; but rather, true repentance is a change of mind about sin so that we agree with God’s viewpoint. Then the heart turns in a new direction, opposite from persistent wrongdoing. Repent means to turn from something, to something else. We don’t veer from it then later veer back, we make a complete turn.

Another reason for failure is an inadequate view of our true identity in the Lord. As a believer, we have Christ living within us to empower us. When we fully grasp this truth, we will recognize that sin does not fit who we are and will stop making excuses for our offenses. Our genuine repentance is based upon an honest understanding of our identity.

When we put these truths together, a powerful tool against the devil and temptation is created. God wants us to be victorious, and we triumph over failure when we remember that Jesus Christ is our life.  Overcoming the past and failures isn't always easy, but if we learn to rely on God for direction and strength, we can overcome anything that comes our direction in life.