Failure

Then the disciple Jesus loved said to Peter, “It’s the Lord!” When Simon Peter heard that it was the Lord, he put on his tunic (for he had stripped for work), jumped into the water, and headed to shore. John 21:7

How do you cope with failure? Do you beat yourself up, get depressed or do you look at it and try to learn from your mistake?  I confess that I have been in both camps.  The 'beat yourself up and get depressed' camp is a miserable one for sure. It achieves absolutely nothing.....even worse, it has a negative effect on you and those around you.  However, if we can learn from our failures it can help us to go on to do better and even great things.

Here in John 21 we find Peter and 6 others just hanging out.  It's a time of transition between Jesus' crucifixion and his ascension to heaven.  Peter, the confident one, part of Jesus' inner circle, had experienced the most terrible failure of denying his friend,with oaths,  (Mark 14:71), only a few days before.  On that night he had left the scene weeping. in shame and agony. I'm guessing he found a hidey hole and beat himself up with recriminations...."How could I deny my Lord? I can't believe I could be so cowardly. What a whimp. I told him I would never deny him even if everyone else did, and I did just what I said I wouldn't. How can I ever face the others.  They didn't deny him. They'll reject me. He'll reject me.  What a useless wretch I turned out to be!"

We don't know if that's how it was for Peter, but we know that somehow he managed to push past his failure and get back into fellowship with the others because he was with them on the resurrection morning when the women came with the news that Jesus had risen from the dead.  The message they brought was "tell the disciples....and Peter, that Jesus is risen" (Mark 16:7).  God knew that Peter needed to know he was still part of the team.  All was not lost.  Peter had a choice; he could have remain mortified, ashamed and depressed and kept himself apart from the company of the others but he chose instead to get up and 'get back on the horse' as it were.

In John 21 Jesus is waiting for them on the beach after they had had an unfruitful night of fishing.  In a moment he calls out instructions and they haul in a huge catch.  When Peter realises it is the Lord, he didn't cower in a corner, he jumped overboard and headed to shore to greet his Saviour.  he obviously wasn't afraid of recriminations or judgment.  He ran quickly to a place of reconciliation and restoration.  He became the preacher at pentecost.  He preached with such an anointing of power and conviction that 3,000 people came to faith that day!  What an opportunity he would have missed if he had stayed in a place of failure and unrepentance. 

Don't let failure keep you down and depressed.  Confess, receive forgiveness AND forgive yourself.  That is often the most difficult thing to do; but we must do it if we are going to move on to better things.  Jesus still forgives and encourages us to go from strength to strength.  Only those who have known failure know how to encourage those who fail.  Let God redeem your failures for the benefit of others.

Prayer:  Jesus,  thank you for including Peter's failure and restoration in the scriptures for our encouragement.  Help me to remember to come quickly to seek your forgiveness when I fail, knowing that your death paid the price for my sin.  Amen

His Love

For God SO LOVED the world that he gave his only Son, that whosoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.  John 3:16

Love took the lashing, the mocking, the blows

Love looked sad as the rooster crowed.

Love knew that flesh was weak within

Yet could stand strong and through prayer could win.

Love bore the crown of thorns, the pain

Love saw the end and bore the stain

Of sins not owned by His pure life

But sins of ours, and all our strife.

Love stood tall and strong that day

When all of His followers ran away.

Love took the nails, the pain of the cross

Love never failed, but died for the lost.

Love felt forsaken and cried out His woe

Yet honoured His mother standing below.

Love spoke to His friend, gave instruction to care

Love joined them as family their pain to bear.

Love never failed in its mission

         Love triumphed in death.

                   Hell could not hold Love!

Faithfulness

“His master replied, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master’s happiness!’ Matthew 25:21

It seems that faithfulness and respect have almost become obsolete in our ever changing world.  Marriages fail, friendships flounder, bosses misuse employees and employees are unreliable, careless and some  even seem ungrateful to have the privilege of employment.  So why does this bother me?  Because where there is a lack of faithfulness things go wrong and people get hurt.

God's desire for his people is that they become like Him, whose very nature is faithfulness. The Lord your God, He is God, the faithful God... (Deuteronomy 7:9) The word 'faithful' appears more than 80 times in the New Testament.  Many of those times it refers to faithful people, or the need to be faithful.  

Faithfulness is a great character trait.  When I began to write here, I wrote that "we should" aim to become faithful people.  There is nothing wrong with that thought except for the words "we should".  It is too easy for us to strive to be the best we can for God but that puts us into a "works mode". We start trying to be something which often leads to disappointment and frustration.  Doesn't scripture say "For it is God who works in us both do will and to do his good pleasure"? Philippians 2:13. Does a child mean to grow up to be like their parent (for good or bad)?  Not usually, it just happens, because of DNA and association.

When we become 'alive to God' we receive his DNA.  Then as we start "associating" with Him by reading His word, getting to know how He thinks, praying and spending time with Him we will naturally become like Him.  In John 15:4 Jesus talks about the vine and the branches.  He states categorically that it is impossible to bear (spiritual) fruit unless we remain or abide in Him (the vine). In verse 5 he says again, "apart from me you can do nothing."   That takes the heat of us, right?

We know that an apple is the natural product of being part of an apple tree, just as the grapes are natural fruit of the vine.  All that is needed is for the sap to flow into the branch and, in due course, fruit happens.  The timing is in God's hands as we yield ourselves to Him to work in us but we can aim to be faithful in abiding in Him and seeking to please Him in how we live.  If we are not becoming more like Him there is probably a need for more abiding, not striving!

Prayer:  Lord Jesus, help me to understand what it means to remain in you so that faithfulness becomes a part of who I am and through that I can bring glory and pleasure to you.  Amen