Faith Filled Friday & FREEdom to Fail

The Lord is the only One worthy of our full confidence because He is the only One that will never let us down. But just because someone fails, it doesn't mean they are all bad. Like so many failures in the Bible, there is still really awesome things about them and things we can learn from these imperfect people.

Not only will others fail us, we will fail our self.

I know this well, I fail myself a lot. Mentally, my brain doesn't function they way it did before I had kids and my memory fails me  a lot. Emotionally, I fail myself in staying patient with my kids after a 2 hour fit about wanting to get the vitamins themselves. Socially, I desire to be always thinking of others but I find myself thinking about what I
have to get done. I fail myself physically, having one more cup of coffee than I should. And even spiritually, not doing the things the Lord prompts me to do.

Seriously, how depressing if my goal in life was to not fail. One day I would wake up and realize, I will never be perfect, then what? Resigned to status as failure for life? That's what it would be unless we let something else define us.

The Bible doesn't say, get it together and never fail. It says, "A righteous man falls 7 time and rises again." Prov. 24:16 And God is not meaning, pull yourself up by the bootstraps, but rather fix your eyes on Christ and know that Jesus died for that mistake too. After all, we are not the fruit producer, He is. He is the One making us the reflection of Him as we yield.

Like smashed grapes, made into wine, healthy for the stomach, God is a redeeming God. Mistakes don't make us unusable. There is no place for shame- if you are a follower of Jesus, you are not defined by your sin, you are defined by His blood. You are a child of the King. Satan wants to accuse you and tell you that you are less than you are. But God says, you are holy, pure, blameless, chosen, adopted, deeply and radically loved unconditionally.

There is no place for guilt- if you have submitted your life to Jesus, you have been
declared innocent. Your guilt was transferred to Christ the moment you admit He was God, let Him forgive you and submit your life to Him. No matter how much Satan or your old self wants to make you feel guilty,  the reality is, you have been declared forgiven, innocent.

There is no place for condemnation for those in Christ. Our sin doesn't surprise God. Jesus came through the line of Bathsheba. That is what God does with failure! He redeems at the expense of His own hurt.  It's not about me or you or us getting it together but about putting more hope in Gods ability through us than in our perfection or mistakes.

His redemption was at the expense of His own hurt. Took His own wrath to plow through bringing beauty in our sin-making Himself famous. The reality is, we, the imperfect ones get to point to a perfect God.

We exist to glorify God, to display His heart and character. And I just love how we are all uniquely built to do that. So every Friday I want to give you, uniquely designed by God, an opportunity to link up your thoughts on God, art, baking, photography, parenting, marriage, homeschooling, writing or blogging and more if they tie into or display the Lord somehow. 

So go ahead and link up below by clicking the link below and following the prompts. Please just let your readers know by including a link at the bottom of your post (or somewhere on your side bar) or put my button code (found below and on the side bar) so they can find these other great people glorifying God and we can continue to grow as a community. Thanks! 

And in effort to encourage others in their writing by faith, please take a minute to comment on another sweet lady's post.  

About Laura

Laura, the creator and host of Missional Women is married and has four kids, two of whom are adopted. Laura and her husband have been missionaries to college students for 12 years serving with Master Plan Ministries. Laura is the Women's Development Coordinator and has discipled over 150 girls, led over 30 Bible studies and speaks to college and women's groups. Laura has authored 5 books, including an award winning 12 week Bible Study on First Samuel, Beholding Him, Becoming Missional, Reach; How to Use Your Social Media Influence for the Glory of God, and A Devotional Journey through Judges, a devotional to accompany the free online Bible study at TheBookofJudges.com.
You can find her on facebook,twitter, pinterest, youtube, instagram and her author site. 

If you'd like to read more from this contributor, type her name in the search box on the top right.

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