Your Failure Isn’t Final!

The Bible makes it clear that God can forgive us and restore us after we’ve fallen in some way. Yet there is something that often gets in the way of our full restoration: We struggle to forgive ourselves! Do you see how wrong that is? The holy God who created the universe declares us NOT GUILTY because of the blood of His Son, but we often feel as if we are still under God’s condemnation!

Peter the disciple seems to have felt this same way. After he denied the Lord, Peter was horrified by what he had done. His old self-reliance was gone, but now the pendulum had swung completely to the other extreme: He didn’t think Jesus could ever forgive him and use him again.

John 21 tells the story of Peter trying to return to his previous life as a fisherman. Reading between the lines, it seems he figured his days in ministry were over. Instead of moving forward in the purposes of God, he determined that the best thing to do was to go back.

But Jesus had called Peter to a higher calling than his old life as a fisherman. He was called to be a “fisher of men” (Matthew 4:19 NKJV). In a gentle and loving way, Jesus appears to Peter in John 21 and gives him another miracle catch of fish (as happened earlier in Luke 5:1–11). Not only that, but Jesus also went on to recommission him for ministry: “Feed My sheep” (John 21:17).

If you have failed in some way, can you hear Jesus’ voice of forgiveness today? Can you see His desire to give you a new beginning and bless you again with abundance? Do you hear His heartbeat to restore you to fruitful service in His Kingdom?

The ironic thing about Peter’s failure is that it actually was a necessary part of his future success. Why? Because the old, arrogant, self-reliant Peter wasn’t really usable by God! It wasn’t until Peter was broken that he could truly understand his need for full reliance on God’s grace and power.

The good news is that Jesus didn’t allow Peter to wallow forever in a place of defeat and failure. Out of Peter’s failure came forgiveness and restoration. He discovered God’s grace in a new way, and on the day of Pentecost, he became the “fisher of men” that Jesus had called him to be—and 3,000 people were saved as a result (see Acts 2).

Perhaps you are struggling today with a stranglehold of failure in some area of your life. If so, the story of Peter can be a powerful message to you. By God’s amazing grace, a new beginning is possible! Your failures don’t have to be final!

Scriptures to meditate on this month:

Week One
For the righteous falls seven times and rises again, but the wicked stumble in times of calamity.
Proverbs 24:16 ESV

Week Two
Rejoice not over me, O my enemy; when I fall, I shall rise; when I sit in darkness, the Lord will be a light to me.
Micah 7:8 ESV

Week Three
We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed.
2 Corinthians 4:8-9 ESV

Week Four
Though he fall, he shall not be cast headlong, for the Lord upholds his hand.
Psalm 37:24 ESV