Comments on: Hope in Failure

By: Leah.Z

Leah.Z — Wed, 28 May 2008 17:48:02 +0000

Failure helps us appreciate what we do have. It can also give us the motivation to start over and work harder this time around to be succesful at something we have made mistakes with in the past. If we make a decision to follow christ and every plan and effort rolls out very nicely and works out, we don’t have to work hard for god. We think we make very little mistakes, we don’t grow, we can even get prideful. We might even think we did all the work and god did nothing. There is no need for hope in this situation because we don’t need god’s help and we would expect every step of faith in the future to work out. Without failure we would have expectations, not hope. We need a reference point to look at. we need to see what it looks like when we have hope that god can help us.

By: neozine » Blog Archive » The Real Xenos Model

neozine » Blog Archive » The Real Xenos Model — Sat, 17 May 2008 00:46:30 +0000

[...] own research now reveals a disturbing trend with this entire approach. I recently blogged about the “Revolving Door Syndrome” that kept us stagnated here in Northeastern Ohio, and Willow is discovering the same trend through [...]

By: neozine » Blog Archive » Driscoll Versus the Weenie Wars, Part 1

neozine » Blog Archive » Driscoll Versus the Weenie Wars, Part 1 — Thu, 15 May 2008 00:32:04 +0000

[...] teaching contained many significant and refreshing biblical insights as I mentioned in my blog, but his repudiation of church growth theology was confusing at [...]

By: becky

becky — Wed, 14 May 2008 19:58:42 +0000

Yeah, this is me, the procrastinator, posting the day of basic docrtine. sorry!

This was a totally cool post, by the way. I can totally relate with a “fearful” reaction to outreach. But i think that failure teaches us to rely on God. You can have somebody tell you to trust in God rather than yourself, but until you’ve failed on your own, you won’t really understand.

By: Angie

Angie — Wed, 14 May 2008 17:06:03 +0000

It’s odd to think about hope being a product of failure. There have been times in my life when I’ve felt pretty hopeless as a result of personal failure, or failures of other people to meet my expectations, failures of jobs and other things to fill my “needs.” The thing is, I had been placing my faith and trust in people and things, myself included, that were bound to fail. I had bestowed God-like qualities on other things and people (myself included, again), thinking they and I could be ever-constant, ever-faithful, always good, always loving. It was finally seeing myself as the big, fat failure/loser that I am that led me to understand how desperately I need God in my life. Only through those failures could I experience the hope that comes from knowing God is in control, that He does love me, that he will not forsake me, and I can believe that and be filled with hope through that faith. The smack-down was hard, but the raising up has been so gentle and loving.

By: Elli

Elli — Wed, 14 May 2008 16:23:25 +0000

failure… failurefailurefailure. For me, failure has come in all shapes in sizes, kicking my ass all around. Finally it clicked in my brain why i keep failing! Well why did i? its because i cant do anything on my own, my own way, my own PLAN. God wants us to depend on him. HE has a plan for people that we should follow and now realizing it, from my own little episode, i rejoice!, like Jackie said. God put me through some trials, and now i am finally achieving a goal, growing in my relationship with God. It was basically an awesomely humbling experience and i feel so excited.

By: Yana.r

Yana.r — Wed, 14 May 2008 14:46:20 +0000

Failure helps Christians to grow into spiritual maturity. Through failure we learn something about our character and also about the character of God. We realize that we are fallen beings, we are limited and are in need of God. God on the other hand is all powerful and that only through Him we can do His work, go out there and love others. It helps us learn how to depend on God and set aside our pride and humbly ask for His help.

By: Jacqueline León

Jacqueline León — Wed, 14 May 2008 06:03:54 +0000

I was struggling with the kind of self-condemning failure up until very recently. It was because of an ever-present power struggle between the Lord and me; I prayed for His guidance and strength in my weakness, but I nonetheless caved whenever it came to confronting people on serious issues. I relied too heavily on my performance and not enough on God’s power to work through me. And when I failed in my performance, I condemned myself in my performance. And how foolish! As God works in grace, we benefit in following and either folly or flourish under the wings of His grace.
Persistent prayer shows a consistent dependence on the Lord. If necessary, repent of a sour perspective or power struggle; if confused on what it is that you’re not comprehending, ask; and pray for the energy, endurance, and guidance to have victory in failure, etc.. And we must view our failure with a sense of gratitude, because it is a blessing in that it reveals a spiritual/character weakness that God can change while being glorified in it.

To sum, Paul says in Romans 5:3-5:
We can rejoice, too, when we run into problems and trials, for we know that they help us develop endurance. 4 And endurance develops strength of character, and character strengthens our confident hope of salvation. 5 And this hope will not lead to disappointment. For we know how dearly God loves us, because he has given us the Holy Spirit to fill our hearts with his love.

By: Nick.s

Nick.s — Wed, 14 May 2008 05:22:13 +0000

Failure is the greatest way in which God shapes us and breaks us down until there is nothing left to do but rely on Him. Depending on ourselves will always result in failure, which is designed to lead us away from self-dependency and self-sufficiency and more toward dependence upon the Lord for sanctification. As Stoney puts it, “The true value of anything is known only when it is wanted.” When we fail, we want to know why. What went wrong? Why does it hurt? How can the problem be fixed? We search for solid ground to stand on. Something we can be confident in, that won’t let us down. Something that keeps us motivated and gives us reason to push on. Something that gives us HOPE! Failure is the mechanism by which God gives us the desire for truth and hope.

By: mike.h

mike.h — Wed, 14 May 2008 03:02:16 +0000

suffering is a part of spiritual growth . With failure it teaches us to be more faithful and learn to trust the Lord more. We learn from our mistakes and learn to Hope for brighter days. But we shouldnt look at suffering as a bad thing. Of course at the time your going to be like oh crap im suffering then later your like.. “look how i have grown since then, and now the Lord is using my failures to help other people.” Our failures arent allways bad because we can then use those expeirences to build up others on what not to do, or avoid. We can only HOPE that God will use our times of suffering and turn it around to become something that will build his kingdom.