By: Pastor Jarren Rogers

“Often we assume that God is unable to work in spite of our weakness, mistakes, and sins. We forget that God is a specialist; He is well able to work our failures into His plans.” – Erwin Lutzer

The Bible is chock full of failures. There’s one failure who lusted after someone else’s wife, killing her husband in the process. There’s another who murdered an Egyptian in cold-blood and fled into the desert. Then there’s the guy who denied the Christ, even though he promised he never would.

But in each of these cases, these people weren’t stopped by their failures or ignored by God because of their sin. Instead, God picked them up, spoke to them, and used them.

The first failure became one of the greatest kings in Israel’s history. He wrote the best collections of poems and songs to God. Also, Jesus Christ, the Savior of the world, can be found in his family tree. The next person was used by God to free the Israelites from slavery. He led the people in their search of the Promise Land and received the Ten Commandments. The final failure was told by Jesus that he was the “Rock of the Church.” He went on to found the Roman church and gave his life in the pursuit of God’s cause.

We all have failed at one time or another. We have made mistakes. We have backslid. We have sinned. We have broken down. We have shown our weakness. We have been found lacking. We have been ruined. We have come to nothing. We have fallen flat. We have fallen short. We have gone astray. We have gone downhill. We have gone up in smoke. We have hit rock bottom. We have lost out.

We have all failed.

The important thing is this:

God wants your failures. God wants your faults. God wants your sin.

Why? Because He can take your greatest failure and turn it into fulfillment. He can take your weakness and turn it into wholeness. He wants to take your transgressions and turn it into your testimony.

Our first response to failure is to run away from God and hide from Him because we are ashamed. But what we really need to do in those moments is run towards God and fall on our knees in His presence. That’s the best place you can be.

God can reweave our failure into a story of His success

Parents: Talk to your children about the last time they failed. Explain to them that God wants to use them despite their failures. Tell them that when they fail, God is there to pick them back up.