About Failure

Standard

We all have experienced failure in life, at least once. Whether it’s an exam, driver’s test, relationships, business deals or even tougher ones like health problems and marriage. So what does it means for us? Do we surrender and just act nothing to the failure? A lot of people said that we have failed because we lack skills, experience and the will power to do it. So then should we just try it again when we have it all? Nope. Why? Let’s start with a verse:

Luke 5:1-3

One day as Jesus was standing by the Lake of Gennesaret with the people crowding around him and listening to the word of God 2 he saw at the water’s edge two boats, left there by the fishermen, who were washing their nets. 3 He got into one of the boats, the one belonging to Simon, and asked to put out little from the shore. Then he sat down and taught the people from the boat.

Jesus saw Simon as an experienced fishermen with skills, yet he lacks faith in God. He chose to got into Simon’s boat to give out God’s words to people and also to Simon.

Luke 5:4-7

When he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, “Put out into deep water and let down the nets for a catch.” 5 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.” 6 When they had done so, they caught such a large number of fish that their nets began to break. 7 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 with all of his experience has been failing to catch a single fish all night, and God told him to set sail in a time where it’s unusual for fishermen to do their job. Yet after receiving God’s words, he began to believe and has a faith in God. The result? He received multiple returns of what he usually got with all his experience and skills, and that is what we will get if we put God first before our experience and skills. With God, there is no dead end, with God, your win is expected and being prepared by Him.

2 Chronicles 13:13-14

Now Jeroboam had sent troops around to the rer, so that while he was in front of Judah the ambush was behind them. Judah turned and saw that they were being attacked at both front and rear. Then they cried out to the LORD. The priests blew their trumpets

In this verse, we clearly learned that we have faced this in life probably more than once. We faced the impossible, the odds are against us, it’s easy for us to just surrender and receive what we afraid of, which is losing and the failure itself. Israel was turned into two kingdom fighting each other, Jeroboam was a part of Israel which at that time boasts more power than Judah. As we see it, Judah was faced with the impossible, Jeroboam has all the skills and power, Judah turned into God, they cried it out, the priests blew the trumpets.

2 Chronicles 13:15-17

and the men of Judah raised the battle cry. At the sound of their battle cry, God routed Jeroboam and all Israel before Abijah and Judah. 18 The Israelites fled before Judah, and God delivered them into their hands. 17 Abijah and his men inflicted heavy losses on them, so that there were five hundred thousand casualties among Israel’s able men. 18 The men of Israel were subdued on that occasion, and the men of Judah were victorious because they relied on the LORD, the God of their fathers.

I’d like to put a pressing issue against the last word of the last verse. And the men of Judah were victorious because they relied on the LORD, the God of their fathers. They RELIED on the LORD, and not themselves, not their skills nor their experience. They put God first, and God made a certain failure into a huge win.

Jeremiah 17:5-8

This is what the LORD says:

“Cursed is the one who trusts in man, who depends on flesh for his strength and whose heart turns away from the LORD. 6 He will be like a bush in the wastelands; he will not see prosperity when it comes. He will dwell in the parched places of the desert, in a salt land where no one lives. 7 “But blessed is the man who trusts in the LORD, whose confidence is in him. He will be like a tree planted by the water that sends out its roots by the stream. It does not fear when heat comes; its leaves are always green. It has no worries in a year of drought and never fails to bear fruit.”

This truly sums up what this post is about. Don’t trust human’s strength, even our own strength to face our problems. Human has limitations, God never has one, and never will. For those who did, they won’t even see prosperity when it comes, how poor is that? But if you trust God, you will be blessed, you will always be producing the goods of God and people will see that in you. God bless you!

This is a summary from Handoyo Santoso service from Gereja Kemah Tabernakel – 5th February 2012

 

No related posts.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

You may use these HTML tags and attributes: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <strike> <strong>