By Nate Cozier
THE STRUGGLE:
Tough times are bound to happen in life no matter what. Everyone goes through struggles and hardships at times in their lives. In my own experience in life I have wrestled with the idea of failure. What I used to think was failure brings hardships and loss. Early on in my academic career I struggled, causing me to fail tests and quizzes many times and turn in bad performances on report cards. I also felt like I failed in other aspects because I hadn’t achieved more than others, and was constantly comparing myself to others.
But what I eventually learned was to redefine the word failure. I was baptized in 2018, and this helped a lot because I could see what God had in store for me, that I didn’t have to be perfect to receive God’s love. I learned that sometimes failure does bring hard times, but if you take the failure to heart and learn from it, the lessons you learn are invaluable. The year I was baptized I switched schools and had a better drive and understanding and was able to improve my academics tremendously. Instead of comparing myself to others I was able to learn from others and it made me a better person and a better disciple.
THE SOLUTION:
I think a character in the bible that embodies this is David. We know him for defeating Goliath, for writing psalms, and for accomplishing so much for God during his life. But he was not perfect; in fact he fell short of the glory of God. He took Uriah’s wife from him, committed adultery, and had Uriah killed. David’s daughter gets sick and dies and he takes it as a sign from God.
2 Samuel 12:9 “Why did you despise the word of the Lord by doing what is evil in his eyes? You struck down Uriah the Hittite with the sword and took his wife to be your own. You killed him with the sword of the Ammonites.”
Nathan confronts him about it, and David repents, fasts, and confesses his sin. Why I think this example helps explain failure is because David failed but he didn’t let it eat him up, causing him to fall into darkness. He was able to learn from the experience and even though there were hard times, God’s forgiveness and love were stronger. He also had Nathan who was a friend that called him out on his sin and helped him overcome his challenge. I think we all need a friend like that in our lives.
2Samuel12:4-7…(13)Now, a visitor came to the rich man. The rich man thought it would be a pity to take one of his own sheep or cattle to prepare a meal for the traveler. So he took the poor man’s lamb and prepared her for the traveler.”
David burned with anger against the man. “I solemnly swear, as the Lord lives,” he said to Nathan,“the man who did this certainly deserves to die! And he must pay back four times the price of the lamb because he did this and had no pity.”
“You are the man!” Nathan told David. “This is what the Lord God of Israel says: I anointed you king over Israel and rescued you from Saul.I gave you your master Saul’s house and his wives. I gave you the house of Israel and Judah. And if this weren’t enough, I would have given you even more. Why did you despise my word by doing what I considered evil? You had Uriah the Hittite killed in battle. You took his wife as your wife. You used the Ammonites to kill him. So warfare will never leave your house because you despised me and took the wife of Uriah theHittite to be your wife. Then David said to Nathan, “I have sinned against the Lord.”
THE CHALLENGE:
I challenge everyone who reads this devotional thought to just start a relationship with God or if you already have one to improve the relationship. To not live life with fear of failure but to persevere, knowing that lessons are learned from failure.
THE PRAYER:
Dear God,
Thank you for this day and for this devotional that I can let it sit in my head for a while. Hopefully it can strengthen me and show me the many ways that you intervene and save us God. I thank you for making all of us individually unique with different talents, and strengths.
Hopefully, God, we can live our lives with a new definition of failure and perseverance so that no task seems too large for your power to accomplish. We love you and we need you God.
Amen
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