How To Recover From Failure

I want us to think about today the subject of failure. Here’s why: Everyone fails at something sometime over a lifetime. When we reach for our dreams, there is always the risk of failure. If we set out to accomplish something, we have to acknowledge that there is the possibility of defeat. Failure represents one’s efforts in a particular area for achievement that for some reason was not successful. This experience is probably going to be painful, though it is not unusual. It happens to us all!
 
So if we are tripped up by failure, how do we recover? How do we regain our balance and move past it. I suppose that first we had better be willing to admit it. We can admit it without the risk of being defined by it. Further, we should not allow fear to paralyze us as a result of it. Teddy Roosevelt once said, “In any moment of decision the best thing you can do is the right thing, the next thing is the wrong thing, and the worst thing you can do is nothing.”
 
Responding to failure requires insight, patience and maturity. Every failure in life becomes an opportunity for a learning experience. Decide to learn from it. Always ask these questions: What can I learn from this? What did I learn about me in this? What should I do differently as a result of this? How can I start over after this? Ask these uncomfortable questions with a faith and confidence that there are important answers here that will prove profitable in advancing toward future achievements in life.
 
Through a lifetime study of Scripture and the reading of numerous personal biographies, I can say with certainty that some of your biggest failures may very well be blessings in disguise. It happens more often than we think. For example, Ronald Reagan was once fired from Warner Brothers and it sent him down a different path that would eventually lead him to the White House as the 40th President of the United States. Charles Haddon Spurgeon missed an interview that closed an academic door of opportunity for him and sent him on a totally different journey which, in time, brought him to the pulpit of the Metropolitan Tabernacle and the largest, most influential church ministry of the 19th century.
 
What happens for persons occurs often times for businesses, as well. A few years ago the 3M Company was trying to develop an adhesive but ended up with a sticky paste that held, but not permanently. They failed! But not really—instead 3M spread the substance on the back of little sheets of paper and called them Post-it Notes. Personally, I use them all the time! This devotional thought began on a Post-it Note!
 
So learn this: Past failure is not an indicator of personal future. Your best days may be ahead! However, when it comes to failure, you must be willing to move beyond it. Past failures may be a point of reference, but it should not be a place of residence. You must not stay there; you cannot stay there. Determine to move beyond it!
 
Simon Peter serves as the poster child for personal failure. Peter failed Jesus one night with his denial of Jesus. However, he did not stay there. He moved past it and grew as a result of it. A short time later, Peter was used by the Lord to preach the gospel on the Day of Pentecost when 3000 were saved. He became one of the great leaders in the early church and was faithful to the end in “feeding the lambs” as Jesus instructed him to do. The books of 1 & 2 Peter give us valuable instruction for living the Christian life with a sense of hope. They come from this great under shepherd of our Lord. Peter moved beyond his failure and it is his whole ministry by which he is measured. We too must move beyond failure—to a bright future! This we will do by God’s grace and to His glory!
 
Devotedly yours,
 Pastor Ron