We Have Hope in Failure {Because of Him}

I broke the speed limit yesterday. And last week I turned left when the sign said not to.

I omit details sometimes to make my point more convincing, and I justify my own desires by lying to myself that they are noble.

I throw internal pity-parties and temper-tantrums and dwell on how things aren’t going my way.

I am quick to anger and fast to speak, especially when it involves my four little people who are slow to obey.

I resent others who don’t care as passionately as I do, and yes, I must admit, I judge them way more than you can possibly know.

And with each passing year, I’m more and more aware how I fail… weekly, daily, hourly. And when faced with an awareness of my own depravity, I’m tempted to feel defeated…tempted to feel condemned…tempted to throw a whole new pity-party.

A bad attitude, all focused on self.

Oh how sinful I am.

And yet, as I discipline myself to read His words every day, I learn and relearn a new perspective–His perspective. I see His provision…the initiative He took to make a way for me to not be separated from Him, despite my failure.

It is by spending time in His Word, reading this message of His heart, that I learn I have hope in failure, because of Him.

We all fail. Every day. We could never do everything perfectly right, and our sin and failure separate us from God. But God did for us what we could not do on our own. He sent His Son to this earth in the likeness of sinful flesh, that through Him–through His death on the cross, we might be made righteous before God.

So instead of self-indulgent pity-parties, and self-absorbed perspectives, let’s fill our hearts with thanks, offering profound gratitude to Him for all He has done for us.

And today when we fail, let’s remember that we have hope in our failure, because of Him.

It is all Him, because He made a way.

Romans 8:3-4 (ESV)

For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.

 

Has failure paralyzed you?

How have you found hope amidst your failure?

This week I am continuing to memorize Romans 8 within the context of this community…won’t you join us as we hide His Word in our hearts?