Today’s Reading, Mark 14
Focal Scripture: Mark 14:30 “Truly I tell you,” Jesus said to him, “today, this very night, before the rooster crows twice, you will deny me three times.”
Failure is not fun. Failure is frustrating. Failure can be demoralizing. However, failure is part of life and growing. Thankfully, I have never known ahead of time that I was definitely going to fail at something. I definitely never been told that I would fail by someone before it happened.
In our reading today Peter is told by Jesus that he would deny him three times before the rooster crowed. Peter tried to deny it but we know that this would never happen. When you stop and think about this exchange it has to be difficult for Peter to grasp what was happening. I am sure he was confident he had it all together. He was passionate about his faith and commitment. Then when Jesus is taken away the disciples will scatter. Peter will fail at acknowledging Jesus.
Failure isn’t fatal. Failure can hurt. Failure can bring you down. Failure can also teach you more about yourself than any victory. When you think about the life of Peter this failure prepared him to have a deeper faith and trust. It helped him become a better leader. Peter had to examine himself to follow Jesus better.
My challenge for you today is to take your failures and use them for good. Obviously, you don’t want to go out and think you’re going to fail. But when you do fail, learn from it. Maybe you have failed to trust Jesus with a certain part of your life. If so ask yourself why you doubted. Get to the root cause and come out better. Our failures in our Christian walk should drive us to trust Jesus and his teachings more. He loves us and wants the best for us. Even when we fail.
Be encouraged today that failure is a great teacher. It can be difficult to make mistakes. It can be difficult to not accomplish a goal. However,these situations are opportunities. Opportunities to grow your faith when things seem the darkest.
If you have failed in your faith journey you are in good company. Take those lessons to Jesus and ask him to teach you and be better. He is more than willing to help.
Tomorrow I plan on reading Mark 15-16
