Introduction
Everyone wants to be a
success. I have never met
anyone who purposely set out to be a failure. Undoubtedly, this is why
so much has been written on the topic “How to be a Success” and why
these books are so popular. I think it was Theodore Roosevelt who said,
“The only man who never makes a mistake is the man who never does
anything.” The simple reality is that failure is one of those ugly
realities of life—a common experience to all of us to some degree. Thus,
the ability to handle failure in its various forms and degrees is a
vital part of the spiritual life and another sign of maturity. A careful
study of the Bible reveals that most of the great figures of Scripture
experienced failure at one time or another, yet those failures did not
keep them from effective service for God. As a partial list, this was
true of Abraham, Moses, Elijah, David, and Peter. Though they failed at
some point, and often in significant ways, they not only recovered from
their failure, but they used it as a tool of growth—they learned from
their failure, confessed it to God, and were often able to be used in
even mightier ways.
The manner in which a leader meets his own failure
will have a significant effect on his future ministry. One would have
been justified in concluding that Peter’s failure in the judgment hall
had forever slammed the door on leadership in Christ’s kingdom. Instead,
the depth of his repentance and the reality of his love for Christ
reopened the door of opportunity to a yet wider sphere of service.
“Where sin abounded, grace did much more abound.”
A study of Bible characters reveals that most of
those who made history were men who failed at some point, and some of
them drastically, but who refused to continue lying in the dust. Their
very failure and repentance secured for them a more ample conception of
the grace of God. They learned to know Him as the God of the second
chance to His children who had failed Him—and third chance, too.
The historian Froude wrote, “The worth of a man must
be measured by his life, not by his failure under a singular and
peculiar trial. Peter the apostle, through forewarned, thrice denied his
Master on the first alarm of danger; yet that Master, who knew his
nature in its strength and in its infirmity, chose him.
159
Understanding the amazing grace of God and His
incredible forgiveness and acceptance through Christ, a mature Christian
is one who has grasped the truth that his or her failure is not the end
of an effective life with and for the Lord. While there may be
consequences to live with (as with David) and serious issues to work
through, the mature believer rests in the grace of God and uses the
failure as a backdoor to success through growth and understanding.
A favorite hymn for many Christians is “Victory in
Jesus” because there IS victory in the Savior. In fact, Christians are
super-conquerors in Christ. They are those who have, as translated by
the NET Bible, “complete victory” (
Rom. 8:37).
Significantly, this statement by Paul is made in a context that
considers the reality of the varied onslaughts of life which must
include failure.
Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will
trouble, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or
danger, or death? 36 As it is written, “
For your sake we encounter death all day long; we were considered as sheep to be slaughtered.”
37 No, in all these things we have complete victory through him who
loved us. 38 For I am convinced that neither death nor life, nor angels,
nor rulers, nor things that are present, nor things to come, nor
powers, 39 nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in creation will be
able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord (
Rom. 8:35-39).
In view of this, we often speak of the victorious
Christian life. But the truth is there is a lot of defeat in the
Christian’s life because none of us will always and perfectly
appropriate the victory over sin that Christ has accomplished for us by
the cross. Further, the amount of deliverance we each experience is a
matter of growth; so on the road to maturity and even after reaching a
certain degree of spiritual maturity, Christians will sin and
fail—sometimes seriously so. We don’t like to talk about it or admit it,
but there is a lot of failure. Failure is a fact of life for the
Christian community, but God’s grace is more than adequate to overcome
any situation. The mature Christian is one who has learned to apply
God’s grace remedy for failure.
The Prevailing Attitude About Failure
Presently the bookstores are full of popular “How to
Succeed Manuals” on every conceivable subject. And why is that? Because
we are so concerned with the glory of God? I would hope so, but there
are also other reasons. Too often, it is because we look at failure with
eyes of scorn. We view failure as a Waterloo. We see it as the plague
of plagues and as the worst thing that could happen to us.
As a result, the fear of failure has many people in
neutral or paralyzed or playing the game of cover up. We consciously or
subconsciously ignore our sins and failures because to admit them is to
admit failure and that’s a plague worse than death. People often refuse
to tackle a job or take on a responsibility for fear of failure. People
believe if they fail they are no good. They think failure means you are a
bad person and you are a failure. But, as previously mentioned,
most of the great leaders in Scripture at some time in their careers
experienced some sort of failure. For instance:
- When Abraham should have stayed in the land and trusted the Lord, he
fled to Egypt because of the drought. And this was by no means the last
of Abraham’s failures.
- Moses, in trying to help his people, ran ahead of the Lord and
killed the Egyptian. Later, against the command of God, he struck the
rock in his anger.
- When David should have been out in the field of battle, he stayed
home and committed adultery with Bathsheba and then plotted the murder
of her husband.
- Peter, in spite of his self-confidence and his great boast, denied
the Lord, as did the rest of the disciples who fled before the evening
our Lord’s arrest was over.
There is a fundamental principle here. Sometimes God
must engineer failure in us before He can bring about success with us.
Our failures are often rungs on the ladder of growth—if we will learn
from our mistakes rather than grovel in the dirt.
This is not to make excuses for sin or to place a
premium on mistakes or failure. This does not mean that a person must
fail before they can be a success, but our failures, whether in the form
of rebellion or just foolish blunders, can become tools of learning and
stepping stones to success. The point is, we should never allow our
fear of failure to paralyze us from tackling a job or trying something
that challenges our comfort zone.
Nor should we allow past failures to keep us down or
keep us from recovering and moving on in the service of the Savior.
This means we should never allow failure to make us think we are a
failure or that we can never change or that we can never again count for
the Lord or that God can’t do anything with us because we have failed
in some way. The Bible says we are all sinners and prone to failure, but
in Christ we can become overcomers.
After the horrible carnage and Confederate retreat
at Gettysburg, General Robert E. Lee wrote this to Jefferson Davis,
president of the Confederacy: “We must expect reverses, even defeats.
They are sent to teach us wisdom and prudence, to call forth greater
energies, and to prevent our falling into greater disasters.”
160
Mature Attitudes About Failure and Success
(1) Mature believers understand that a Christian
can become successful in spite of failure because of God’s incredible
grace and forgiveness. We may have to live with the results of some
of our failures or sins, yet God is free to continue to love us in
Christ and use us for His purposes because of
grace (cf.
John 21 & Peter).
(2) The mature believer seeks to use failures as lessons for growth and change.
Mature believers will act on two principles: (a) They understand that
failures remind us of the consequences of our decisions. We reap what we
sow. This is the law of harvest. Failures remind us of what can happen,
they can make us careful, but they should not be allowed to paralyze
us. (b) The mature believer recognizes that our failures show us what we
should and should not do; they become lessons in where we went wrong
and why. You know what they say, “hindsight is 10/20.” It can help us
avoid the same mistake twice if we will learn from history.
Thomas Edison invented the microphone, the
phonograph, the incandescent light, the storage battery, talking movies,
and more than 1000 other things. December 1914 he had worked for 10
years on a storage battery. This had greatly strained his finances. This
particular evening spontaneous combustion had broken out in the film
room. Within minutes all the packing compounds, celluloid for records
and film, and other flammable goods were in flames. Fire companies from
eight surrounding towns arrived, but the heat was so intense and the
water pressure so low that the attempt to douse the flames was futile.
Everything was destroyed. Edison was 67.
With all his assets going up in a whoosh (although
the damage exceeded two million dollars, the buildings were only insured
for $238,000 because they were made of concrete and thought to be
fireproof), would his spirit be broken?
The inventor’s 24-year old son, Charles, searched
frantically for his father. He finally found him, calmly watching the
fire, his face glowing in the reflection, his white hair blowing in the
wind. “My heart ached for him,” said Charles. “He was 67—no longer a
young man—and everything was going up in flames. When he saw me, he
shouted, ‘Charles, where’s your mother?’ When I told him I didn’t know,
he said, ‘Find her. Bring her here. She will never see anything like
this as long as she lives.’”
The next morning, Edison looked at the ruins and
said, “There is great value in disaster. All our mistakes are burned up.
Thank God we can start anew.” Three weeks after the fire, Edison
managed to deliver the first phonograph.
161
(3) When mature believers fail they:
- Acknowledge their failures and refuse to hide behind any lame duck excuses.
- Confess any sin to God when sin is involved is involved in the failure.
- Study or examine what happened so they can learn from the failure.
- Put it behind them and move ahead (1 John 1:9; Phil. 3:13).
Being assured of God’s forgiveness, we are to put
our failures behind us, count on and rest in His forgiveness, and refuse
to use them as an excuse for morbid introspection, pessimism, self
pity, depression, and fear of moving on for the Lord.
(4) Mature believers grow through failure. They will know and act on certain truths:
- We are accepted in the Lord on the basis of Grace, not our performance.
- We are human and, as a result, we are not now perfect nor will we ever be.
- God still has a plan for our lives. God is not through with us yet, and we need to get on with His plan.
(5) The mature believer will be one who understands there are different kinds of failure.
- There are those who have genuinely failed according to the principles of Scripture.
If we fail to know why we believe what we believe and then fail to give
an adequate reason to those who ask for a reason for our hope (1 Pet. 3:15),
then we have failed in our responsibility to witness. That can become a
stepping stone to getting equipped and to becoming bold in our witness,
but at that point there was failure.
- There is a false guilt of failure because of a wrong view of success.
Many missionaries have labored faithfully in foreign countries without
much success by way of converts, but that by no means indicates they are
failures. A biblical illustration is Isaiah. Right from the beginning,
after seeing the Lord high and lifted up, after confessing his own sin
and that of his nation, and after saying, “Here am I, send me,” God sent
him to preach to a people who would not listen and told him so
beforehand (see Isa. 6:8-10). In the eyes of people, he was a failure, but not in God’s eyes.
- There is another class of failure; those who mistakenly believe they are successes!
These believers may earn an honest living and be fine supporters of the
church. They unconsciously (or sometimes all too consciously) consider
themselves examples for others to follow. Yet they do not realize that
from God’s perspective they are failures. One man put it this way: “I
climbed the ladder of success only to discover that my ladder was
leaning against the wrong wall!”
Heaven will be filled with surprises! Many
“successful” Christians will be nobodies, and some whose lives were
strewn with the wreckage of one failure after another will be great in
the kingdom.
162
(6) The mature believer is one who understands
the importance of choosing the right standard of measurement to
determine success and failure. There are a number common worldly
beliefs about success that people apply to themselves and others, but
they are all distortions of the truth.
163
Most of these are based on some form of faulty comparison. To those who
were guilty of this kind of foolishness, the apostle Paul wrote: “For
we would not dare to classify or compare ourselves with some of those
who recommend themselves. But when they measure themselves by themselves
and compare themselves with themselves, they are
without understanding” (
2 Cor. 10:12, emphasis mine)
Fundamentally, this is the distortion of comparing
ourselves with others. We are all to do our best according the abilities
God has given us and we are right in using others as models of
Christ-like character. Paul told the Corinthians, “Be imitators of me as
I also am of Christ” (
1 Cor. 11:1).
But this is not the same as when we compare ourselves with other people
from the standpoint of their gifts, abilities, bank accounts,
possessions, position and other such standards and then attempt to
determine our success or failure or that of someone else based on such
comparisons.
When in seminary, we wrote our test answers in a
little booklet called “The Blue Book.” After the tests were graded, they
were placed in our mail boxes in the seminary mail room. Naturally, we
all anticipated or dreaded, as the case might be, looking through the
little glass door and seeing that little Blue Book stuffed in our box.
The tendency for students was to inquire about the grades of their
classmates or to loudly declare the grade they received, “Great, I made
100!” Many students refused to be involved in this game and kept their
grades to themselves because of the foolish comparisons that sometimes
occurred. Some students, regardless of how hard they studied, actually
began to see themselves as failures because they were not able to make
the high grades of some of their class mates and questioned whether or
not they should even stay in seminary.
Other people determine their level of success by
their bank accounts as measured by the luxury items they are able to
purchase—a huge home, furniture, automobiles, boats, etc. Lutzer writes,
If money is a basis of judging success or failure,
it is obvious that Jesus Christ was a failure! Consider this: when He
had to pay taxes, He asked Peter to find a coin in a fish’s mouth. Why?
He didn’t have a coin of His own.
Christ was born under the shelter of a stable’s
roof. Most of us would be appalled if our children could not be born in a
modern hospital! When He died, the soldiers cast lots for His garment. That was all He owned of this world’s goods. He died naked, in the presence of gawking bystanders.
Was Christ a failure? Yes, if money is the standard
by which He is judged. The foxes have holes, the birds of the air have
nests, but the Son of man did not have a place He could call home.
Of course, earning money (and even saving some) is
both legitimate and necessary. But the amount we earn is not a barometer
of God’s blessing.
164
And I might add, lots of money and things are never
an evidence of success in God’s eyes. Many who are wealthy are failures
from God’s viewpoint. The point, then, is the absence or presence of
money is not in itself proof of success or failure.
The comparison game reaches out to almost every area
of life. It may involve comparing friends, i.e., name-dropping to
suggest that one is successful because he runs with the right people. Or
it may involve believers comparing the size of their church, the size
of their mission’s budget, the number of books one has had published,
etc. None of these things are in themselves a proof of success in God’s
eyes. A classic illustration is when Moses struck the rock when God had
told him to only speak to the rock.
Water flowed. The people were jubilant! Was Moses a success? Yes, in the eyes of men. No, in the eyes of God! His disobedience brought water, but it also brought punishment.
Results in themselves are not a proof that God is
pleased. It is possible to win attendance contests and disseminate the
Gospel and see results; all these activities can be done without
pleasing God! Such results can be achieved by deceptive gimmicks or for
purely personal satisfaction. It is not enough to do God’s work; it must
be done in his way and for His credit.
165
Conclusion
There are many causes for failure. Some are the
product of specific acts of sin, but some are not. Some are simply the
product of ignorance or of circumstances beyond our control like a drop
in the stock market or extreme weather conditions (drought, floods),
which can cause a farmer or rancher to lose his shirt, as they say.
Naturally, this kind of failure, as serious and painful as it is, is not
as serious as spiritual failure like, for instance, the sin of David.
While David did recover from his sin and was still used of God
afterward, there were lifelong consequences in his life and in the lives
of others.
Whether caused by sin or by the many things that can
happen beyond our control, all failure teaches us the important truth
of just how desperately we need God and His mercy and grace in our
lives. Sometimes our failures are mirrors of reproof, but always they
can become tools for growth and deeper levels of trust and commitment to
God if we will respond to them as such rather than rebel and become
hardened through the difficulty. “God is adequate for all kinds of
failure. Some failures may not be our fault, but they serve as reminders
that we must live with eternal priorities in mind. Other failures are
directly the result of our own sinful choices.”
166
Regardless, God has made more than adequate
provision for us in Christ and His finished work on the cross, which is
the sole basis of our relationship and forgiveness with God and our
means of a meaningful and productive life with Him.
159 Oswld J. Sanders,
Spiritual Leadership, Moody Press, Chicago, 1967, 1980, p. 163.
160 “Today In the Word,” Moody Bible Institute, November, 1989, p. 21.
161 Charles Swindoll,
Hand Me Another Brick, Thomas Nelson, 1978, pp. 82-83.
162 Erwin W. Lutzer,
Failure, the Backdoor to Success, Moody Press, Chicago, 1975, 1984, p. 17.
163 For a more detailed consideration of these issues, see Lutzer’s discussion of this on pages 20-26 of his excelent book,
Failure, the Backdoor to Success.
Appendix: Discussion Questions for
Marks of Maturity
MEN 7/52 is a men's ministry of bible.org. Our desire is to see all
men become true followers of Jesus Christ 7 days a week/52 weeks a year.
These studies were developed in a team training environment where men
were being trained for their role as church leaders, as fathers, and as
effective members of a society that desperately needs to see what
authentic, biblical Christianity looks like. So, exactly what does a
mature Christian look like? A mature Christian is a believer whose life
begins to take on the character of Christ-likeness. But what exactly is
that? What are the specific qualities that mark out a person as
Christ-like? This is the focus and point of this study.
The qualities that should characterize Christian leaders are also the
marks of spiritual maturity as described in the Bible. While all of the
qualities that will be discussed in this series are not unique to
Christianity and are often promoted and taught in the secular world,
many of them are, by their very nature, distinctive to the Bible or
biblical Christianity. Thus, the characteristics that should mark out a
Christian leader are also the marks of biblical maturity which are in
essence the product of true spirituality. In fact, biblical spirituality
can be described by the term
maturity since Christian maturity
is the result of growth produced by the ministry of the Spirit in the
light of the Word over time. It is this biblical/spiritual element, at
least in part, that makes the marks of Christian leadership
distinctively Christian.
Session 18
It is stated in the text that “sometimes God must engineer failure in us before He can bring about success with us” (p. 152).
1. What are some of the significant failures you have experiences in your life?
2. How did you process these failures with the Lord?
3. Describe the lessons you learned through your experience and processing of these failures.
4. How did these failures prepare you to be a better servant of the Lord?
5. What successes have you experienced because of the lessons you learned during your times of failure?
6. What is it that allows a mature believer to succeed in spite of failure?
7. How does a mature believer use failure as lessons for growth and change?
8. What are the four key actions mature believers take when they fail?
9. The mature believer relies on three truths that allow them to grow through failure. What are they?
10. Describe, in your own words, the three different kinds of failure a mature believer understands.
11. In measuring success and failure, the mature
believer uses a specific standard. Please describe this standard and how
it is used.
12. What measurements of success and failure do you use in the following areas?
- Your home life and your family’s growth
- Your areas of ministry
- Your workplace and the conduct of your responsibilities
13. To whom do you compare yourself as you succeed or fail in the following areas?
- Your home
- Your spiritual growth
- Your career development
- Your position in your community
14. How do you evaluate yourself when you see someone who:
- Makes more money that you
- Drives a nicer car than yours
- Lives in a bigger house than yours
- Has higher career achievements than you
- Takes more expensive vacations than you
15. As a mature believer, what standard must you use in any area of your life to measure your growth and success?
New
entrepreneurs routinely jump into a startup with a full charge of
passion and energy, but often find themselves drained of both after a
few months by the workload and challenges. As a result, burnout and loss
of passion are consistently listed among the top causes of startup
failure, according to many studies. The challenge is find ways to continually recharge along the way.
