What to Do in Case of Failure

You love Jesus, and your very heart longs to do something for Him. You see His great love to you, and it arouses your soul to spend every moment of your life for Him. Nothing is too hard for you to do. Any suffering that would bring glory to His name you would gladly undergo. Oh, how sweet to suffer for His sake! How blessed to sacrifice for Him! How joyous to toil in His service to His glory! But your heart is sometimes made sad by failures. You meant to do something for Jesus, but you failed. You are not sad for your sake, but for His sake. You think He cares and now what shall you do? Perhaps no life is wholly free from failures. Ofttimes we fail to accomplish what we had hoped to do.

When a child fails to accomplish something it has undertaken for a parent and then comes with its innocent tale of sorrow, the parent’s heart is awakened to greater and more tender pity and love. You send your little child for an arm-load of wood, and it goes gladly and lovingly. As it is bearing the load back, you see it fall. Love and pity awaken in your heart, and you run quickly and gather up child, wood, and all. When you see the bruised flesh upon the little one, the tears start, and you say, “Poor little darling! You received this bruise in trying to serve me.” Remember, dear child of God, that Jesus feels toward you, when you fail in your loving and willing service for Him, just as you feel toward your child. The bruises you receive in your service endears you to Him.

Some of Christ’s little ones once attempted to do something for Him, but failed. A man had an afflicted son. This son the man took to some of Jesus’ disciples that they might cure him. In Jesus’ name they attempted to do this, but they failed. They went to Jesus and asked why they could not cast out the evil spirit. That was a wise thing to do. In your failures do not sit and weep and decide you will never attempt to do anything again. Go to Jesus and ask Him why you failed. He will explain the whole matter and encourage you to try again, and will tell you just how you can succeed the next time. It is good to take everything to Jesus and learn how before you attempt to do it. Failures would be far less common. But do the best we can, there will be some failures. But, through our failures, Jesus can teach us to do some things that we could not otherwise learn to do.