Tuesday, August 12, 2008

Failure?

Do you ever get those days when you feel like you are running on empty? Today has been one of those days for me. I caught myself thinking, "I feel like such a failure!" In my closed-minded way of thinking, I thought that I had let God down somehow.

But what, exactly, is failure? Failure, by one definition, is "the condition or fact of being insufficient or falling short"1. Romans 3:23 immediately comes to mind: "For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God."

All of us fail; we all fall short! Somehow, it's so hard to remember that we do not have any righteousness of our own; rather, it is a gift and it comes only by faith. The same passage of scripture in Romans 3 fits so well:


"This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus." (Romans 3:22-24)

What we need to do is to trust God to help us through all our days. The next time we feel as if we have fallen short, we need to realize that true righteousness comes from God alone, and He alone can strengthen us and make us righteous.

"My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever." (Psalm 73:26)



1 From The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 2006

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

The only way to fail is to not try. Thanks.

Maria Pauline

Anna said...

Repentance and faith are the pathways to knowing the righteousness of God through Christ... what a blessing we have!