The big deal is not our failure, but our faith (reposing in Christ) not failing. His love for us accommodates failure very well, in fact he opens wide His arms of love to welcome and embrace so-called failure just as the Father of the lost son did. Luke 15:11-32. Failures are never celebrated anywhere else except in the Father's house. His love still receives failure. A man can go out and mess up everything intentionally or unintentionally and he will still be received with so much pomp and fanfare as the father did for the lost son, after all the lost son was intentional in his wrongdoing. Does that mean He wants us to fail or that we should go out and screw up just anyhow? Far from the truth. Knowing His love as unconditional actually spurs us on to success. The point here is that even if we fail, His faithfulness in loving us yet abides. The only thing that matters is the faith of Christ Jesus that we have still standing. Does that then mean that even the faith by which we stand is our responsibility? No! Remember it was Jesus Christ that took responsibility for Peter's faith not to fail. It was not Peter that strived so hard for his faith not to fail. This brings us to one of the deceptions of modern day Pentecostalism that we are responsible for our faith. That is so far from the truth. Our faith is a gift of God and the sustenance of our faith is equally a gift and responsibility of God. Jesus was the source of Peter's faith and He also was the One who sustained it by praying for Peter's faith not to fail. Let us consider this scripture about our loving God.
Isaiah 42:3
[3]A bruised reed shall he not break, and the smoking flax shall he not quench: he shall bring forth judgment unto truth.
A reed in ancient Israel is used for making music. It is the stem of a plant. When the reed becomes bruised, the normal practice was to throw it away and get another one. A bruised reed cannot be used for making music any more. In the verse above, we see that Jesus will not break a bruised reed. In other words, Jesus will never abandon even if we seem battered and bruised and have lost our song. Perhaps I should also mention that the usefulness of a reed is the making of music. So when a reed is bruised, it has lost its usefulness. Yet the word tells us that Jesus Christ will not discard a bruised (useless) reed. God does not love us because we are useful to Him. He will never despise or forsake even if we seem to become useless like the bruised reed. Amen.
The smoking flax He shall not quench means what? A smoking flax refers to a wick that is no longer burning as it should. Many of us are familiar with those local lamps that use wick. When the lamp is going out, the wick begins to produce smoke and to burn dimly. Our natural reaction is always to snuff it out. Here the Bible tells us that our Saviour will not extinguish or quench even a smoking flax. When we seem to be losing our shine and we seem to be burning dimly, Christ will never extinguish us or get rid of us.
Rather what will He do? According to the above verse, He shall bring forth judgment unto truth. Judgment above does not refer to an unfavourable verdict, but His good opinion of us. The word truth above is from the Hebrew "emeth" which means faithfulness or firmness or steadfastness. In other words, Christ shows Himself faithful and delivers a favourable verdict concerning us, even when we seem to be losing it. He delivers a faithful verdict concerning us. So much for religion that wants us to believe that God is merely in love with us as much as we are useful to Him. This heresy is being propagated as discovery of purpose in the church today. The message of finding your purpose is one big religious stick for goading the flock into legalism. Many have been deceived into believing that God rates or rank them according to how well they are doing in fulfilling His purpose for their lives. God has the same purpose for all of us and that purpose is a person, even Jesus Christ.
2 Timothy 1:9
[9]Who hath saved us, and called us with an holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began,
Bruised as a reed? He will not break you. Smoking and dimly burning as a flax? He will not quench. The lost son was embraced by the father with widely opened arms. The love of God embraces all, black or white, success or failure and strong or weak.
Grace always!