“To Err Is Human”

eDevotion

Encouragement for your daily walk with God

“To err is human” [Alexander Pope (1688-1744)]. Failure is a part of the human condition, and the best we can do is strive to keep them as small as possible—but they are failures nonetheless. 

The bigger question is is not whether or not we will fail, but what is our response to failure. Every motivational speaker has a particular methodology to respond to failure. Typically it involves picking yourself up and moving on, or learn from your failures and keep moving forward. Good advice? Yes! There is some substance to that. But for a Christ follower, our moral failures require more that just “pick yourself up, dust yourself off, and start all over again.” [Pick Yourself Up - 1936, Jerome Kern]

The Bible doesn’t hide from us the colossal failures of the great men of God in its pages. Abraham twice lied about his wife and nearly caused international incidents on both occasions. Isaac perpetrated the same lie about his wife with similar result. David committed adultery and covered it up by sending the woman’s husband to the front line of a war, leading to his death. Peter denied Jesus three times. Paul began his career as a bounty hunter bringing Christians to persecution and death. 

We, like them, have experienced failure. And just like them, we need to experience forgiveness and restoration with the God of second chances. Will God truly forgive us? Yes! When we confess and repent. [1st John 1:9]

By the way, God often uses our failures as lessons in humility and dependence on Him. One of my Bible College professors was fond of saying that failure is the only sure path to humility.

There is nothing so heinous that cannot be forgiven by God, and each and every Christ follower should not be slow to practice that same forgiveness. My guess is that if we did a better job of forgiving, our stress level would go down and our church attendance would go up. 

And be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God in Christ forgave you. [Ephesians 4.32 NKJV]