Three Ways Jesus Responds to Your Failure
By Rick Warren
“The steadfast love of the LORD never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.” Lamentations 3:22-23 (ESV)
Failure can be isolating. When you’re in the middle of a failure, you often feel ashamed and just want to be alone. But Jesus is with you always, even in your greatest failure.
To help you through your failures, Jesus does three incredible things:
Jesus prays for you. Even before Peter had failed, Jesus told him, “I have prayed for you, that your faith will not fail” (Luke 22:32 NASB).
Even at this very moment, Jesus is interceding—praying—for you. The Bible says, “He is able, once and forever, to save those who come to God through him. He lives forever to intercede with God on their behalf” (Hebrews 7:25 NLT).
Jesus believes in you. In fact, he expects you to heal and recover. That’s why he told Peter before his big failure, “When you have repented and turned to me again . . .” (Luke 22:32 TLB). Jesus knew Peter would sin and fail and eventually come back to him.
The truth is that we all fail, and we fail repeatedly. Your biggest weaknesses are habitual. You don’t just do them one time and that’s it. You do them over and over. But God isn’t there just for the big, one-time mess-up. He’s there for the mistakes you make over and over again. Though you fail repeatedly, God will always believe in you.
Jesus shows you mercy. Jesus is more willing to show mercy than you’re willing to ask for it. When you’re down, Jesus doesn’t beat you up or add to your guilt. Instead, he saves you.
In John 21, just weeks after Peter had denied Jesus, Peter and some other disciples went fishing. Though they fished all night, they caught nothing. At dawn, Jesus called to them from the shore and told them where to throw their nets. “So they did, and they couldn’t haul in the net because there were so many fish in it” (John 21:6 NLT).
When Peter followed Jesus’ instructions, he caught more fish than he could possibly handle. Jesus is ready to do the same for you. He can do more in five minutes of your life than you can do in 50 years of planning.
Here’s more good news: God’s mercy toward you is not dependent on your performance. The Bible says in Lamentations 3:22-23, “The steadfast love of the LORD never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness” (ESV).
Friend, you may give up on God, but he’s never going to give up on you. Jesus is praying for you, believes in you, and will always show you mercy. No matter what you do, God is faithful.
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