Encouragement

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Failures
15And if this is the way You deal with me, kill me, I pray You, at once, and be granting me a favor and let me not see my wretchedness [in the failure of all my efforts]. – Numbers 11:15

You can never fail as long as you try; your only failure is if you never try at all. This is an all too familiar phrase around our home. We have spoken this to our children as a motivator to encourage them to always try. We never want our children to have a defeated mindset from the beginning. If it doesn’t turn out the way that they have hoped, at least they have tried.

Why is this so important to us? The future is full of mountains and valleys, burdens and loads. We want to train them, condition them so to speak, for the tasks ahead. Yes, as Christians, we have all of the promises, hope for the future and resting in Jesus, but even the great Biblical men of old, who spoke face to face with God, struggled under the weight of failure.

A strange occurrence I encounter among people is the invisible line I find drawn between the generations. Is it just me or have you noticed that a majority of younger people boast in their accomplishments, and their parents boast in their children’s accomplishments and as the age groups progress, the older people almost boast in their failures.

I have seen fathers buckle under the weight of failure to provide what society dictates that their family needs. I have seen mother’s broken, feeling like failures when their children are addicted and they can’t reach them. I have seen marriages brutally ripped apart by spouses casting the blame of failure on one another. I have seen children defeated before they even have a spark of hope under the unbearable weight of the expectation of perfection.

Failure is like fire, it will feed on the smallest leaf to the greatest forest, and it does not care. Failure is not discriminating and its end result is despair.

Who would ever in their right mind think of Moses as a failure? This man was face to face with God Almighty! The Glory of the Lord shone so bright from his face after being with God that people could not look upon him. He actually had to wear a veil. Can you imagine that?

This man was called from a burning bush, witnessed the deliverance of Gods people from the hand of Pharaoh. Moses watched God part the Red Sea before them. He ate the Manna from Heaven. What happened?

Look at today’s Scripture. Moses actually prayed for God to kill him. He proclaimed that God would be doing him a favor. He couldn’t bear the weight of the burden of his failure in spite of all his efforts.

This is eye opening revelation. Don’t miss this! Moses was ready to die. He was exhausted. He could not bear anymore. He had done everything he could do. What was Moses great failure here? He was focused on the failure of all of his efforts.
God promised to deliver the people through Moses, He did. God promised to provide for the people, He did. God promised to protect them, He did. God did exactly what he said he would.

Here is the question. If these people, whom God had shown Himself to, miracle after miracle, rejected Him, what exactly did Moses expect from them for himself? Moses’ failure was thinking he could accomplish something of his own effort.

Do not go throwing effort out of the window right here. Focus is the key. Moses had to put forth the effort to move one foot in front of the other in order to go back to Egypt in the first place. But somewhere along the way, in spite of the witnessed miracles at the hand of God, the weight of the world and the pressures and expectations of the people got to him. Moses’ focus and expectation shifted from God to himself.

If you read on, you will find that Moses focus on failed efforts, turned him to God. Although Moses cried to God to kill him, God had a better plan. God wanted to relieve Moses of his burden; He brought others alongside him to help. I think God’s plan was better.

The pressures and weight of today’s world are bearing down on so many. You may think that you have failed God, your spouse, your children, your parents or your friends too much. You may even feel so deep in despair that like Moses, you are crying out for God to just end it. Focus.

Hebrews 4:16 directs us to God’s throne:
16Let us then fearlessly and confidently and boldly draw near to the throne of grace (the throne of God's unmerited favor to us sinners), that we may receive mercy [for our failures] and find grace to help in good time for every need [appropriate help and well-timed help, coming just when we need it].

Our feelings are real, but they will fail us and mislead us. The most well intentioned advice can oftentimes lead astray. The ones who love us the most can inadvertently fail us. There is only One Who absolutely knows what is best for you. Only One who has promised to never leave us or forsake us. Draw near to Him and His throne of grace today, ask Him for help. That is the one place; you can rest assured that you will find complete and lasting freedom from all failure.

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