Never, ever, never be a victim of your failure!

So, how do I keep from becoming a victim?

Remember You’re Not Alone

James 3:2 NLT
Indeed, we all make many mistakes. For if we could control our tongues, we would be perfect and could also control ourselves in every other way.

Refuse To Stay Down

Proverbs 24:16 NLT
The godly may trip seven times, but they will get up again. But one disaster is enough to overthrow the wicked.

Learn From Your Failure

Proverbs 20:30 GNT
Sometimes it takes a painful experience to make us change our ways.

Proverbs 28:13 CEV
If you don’t confess your sins, you will be a failure. But God will be merciful if you confess your sins and give them up.

Accept God’s Grace

Colossians 2:14 NCV
He canceled the debt, which listed all the rules we failed to follow. He took away that record with its rules and nailed it to the cross.

Romans 8:1 NLT
So now there is no condemnation for those who belong to Christ Jesus.

In 1998 Peyton Manning was a rookie. He started all 16 games and threw 28 interceptions. It was and still is the NFL record for failure for a rookie season. To make matters worse, his team went 3-13

“I still think that the best way to learn is to go out there your rookie year and start all 16 games as a quarterback, if you fail, that’s okay because your learning. I still hold that rookie record for interceptions. I’m not gonna lie — I pull for these rookies every year to break it…So, whoever wants to start their rookie quarterback 16 times and throw it a lot this year, I’m all for it.” – Peyton Manning

Now, no one…except a Patriots fan…would call Peyton Manning a failure. In fact, beyond his Rookie Interception record, when he retired he held 21 individual NFL records, including: Most passing TD, Most passing YD, Most wins, First QB ever to beat the other 31 teams, and the most MVP’s. How did someone who started out with such glorious failure, end up with such amazing success?

And you know what, in the sports world he’s not alone, Kobe Bryant holds the record for the most missed shots in NBA history, and the old school slugger, hall of famer Reggie Jackson, hold the MLB record for the most strikeouts. Nolan Ryan, arguably the GOAT pitcher, hold the MLB record for walks given up, 2,795. Only pitcher in history to walk more than 2,000.

They each refused to become a victim of their failure!

The only way that failure can get the last word in our life is if we choose to let it. We serve a God who is able to take our defeats and missteps and still use us to bring glory to his name. I want to share with you one amazing and awesome discovery of the Bible: God loves to use failures.

In fact, his book the Bible, is written for failures. The Bible is chocked full of people who were failures, foul-ups, and flops. David was a moral failure, yet God restored him and used him.

Elijah was an emotional train wreck after Mount Carmel, but God pick him up and blessed him.

Jonah was in the belly of a fish because he disobeyed God, but God heard his prayer and answered him.

When you lost your job, flunked the exam, dropped out of school. When your marriage went south. When your business went broke. When you failed. The voices began to howl, laughing at you. You heard them. And maybe you even joined them! You disqualified yourself, berated yourself, hated yourself. You sentenced yourself to a life of hard labor in the Leavenworth of self pity and self loathing.

Failure finds us all. Failure is so universal we have to wonder why more self-help gurus don’t address it. Bookstores overflow with volumes on how to succeed. But you’ll look a long time before you find a section called “How to Succeed at Failing.”

Failure is a form of quicksand. Take immediate action or you’ll be sucked under.

Every mistake is a lesson in what not to do. Every setback is an opportunity to dig deeper in to yourself, to access resources you didn’t know you have and to acquire wisdom you could gain no other way.

To be unwilling to admit that you make or made a mistake is both arrogant and devastatingly dangerous!

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