Tuesday, December 31, 2013

Failure, or yet another reason to give God glory?

With all our faults and failures, we are in good company.  God's Old Testament prophets, and New Testament disciples were quite a crew of misfits and flops...They all had their quirks.  But God managed to get His plan accomplished through them in spite of their shortcomings.  He doesn't want or need our perfection, He wants our hearts...our obedience, our commitment, our loyalty and most of all I think He wants our humble admission that without Him, we can do nothing.  Realizing we fail should make us all the more ready, willing and able to let His work be done in us, and through us.

I'm thinking about people feeling like a failure because of comments I have read the past couple days. As the new year approaches we seem to mentally take stock of our last years accomplishments and seem to come up with a big zero as far as success in completing goals set, or how we perceive others judge our work.  Really?  I'm guilty too of rehashing in my mind and concluding my effort doesn't amount to much.  Well, the flip side to that is...if we did accomplish the great things we have set for ourselves to do, then to whom does the  victory belong?  That seems to be a fast track to major issues of pride and self glorification doesn't it?

When we see our efforts as the pitiful offerings they are, we are reminded that God is the one to do the work through us.  Yes, we work, but it is God's work when we focus on making it His, and it isn't up to us to determine the value of that work.  It is our responsibility to do as we are directed, success is not necessarily the desired end. Obedience with a right heart attitude is.

So, let last year's events settle.  Look forward to a great new year with new opportunities to fail...humanly speaking.  It is our failure that points others to the awesome greatness of God.  For Him to be able to take our meager and less than perfect labor and turn it into a ministry of grace and reconciliation is nothing short of a miracle.  His miracle not ours.  If we were to know big success who would get the glory? Something to ponder for sure.

2 comments:

Somer Rother said...

Thank you for sharing this! Just want I needed to read today as I have been thinking of all the ways I "failed" in 2013. Instead I choose today to praise Him for all that He did in the lives of my family and friends this year! I truly have so much to be thankful for! To HIM be ALL GLORY!

Diane said...

Let's praise God together Somer. Sometimes it's pretty awesome how these thoughts develop with just a comment or word or phrase I hear or read. I won't take credit because I do believe the spirit initiates them. I'm thankful for the outlet via the blog .. to read others thoughts and to blog my own. Store up the lesson, dear girl. One day it'll be your daughter and her friends you will be encouraging!