April 3, 2021
Failure is A Detour
I am no stranger to failure. After I graduated college, I came home to live with my parents. No ministry positions opened up for me after graduation, so I was forced to move home. Now, in today’s culture, this is a normal, everyday occurrence. However, twenty years ago, it just wasn’t done.
Two of my favorite men in the Bible are Moses and Joseph; both were men who had detours that looked like failures. In the case of Moses, the failure was his fault. As we see in Exodus 2, he was banished from the palace into the wilderness because he killed a man. Joseph, on the other hand, didn’t do anything wrong. Genesis 39 clearly says he never slept with Potiphar’s wife and was imprisoned for a crime he never committed. But this was all part of God’s plan. His detour was a God-designed plan to save the people of Israel and fulfill the purposes God had for his life. If we could talk to both of these men, I’m sure they’d both say that there came a point where they felt like failures and honestly believed their lives were over. It was hopeless. They were lost and given up for dead with no chance of ever having a better life or achieving their God-given purpose.
To them and everyone around them, they’d failed. It. Was. Over.
Yet, in God’s eyes it was just a detour.
It was part of their journey to becoming who He wanted them to be and fulfilling His purpose for their life.
As I was going on my own journey through climbing Mt. Failure, I drew encouragement from the lives of these men and others like them. I hung on to the truth that even though it looked like I’d failed and so many people were more than happy that my perfect family had a failure, in God’s eyes it was just a detour.
Honestly, I knew in my heart that God had led me home and He had to have a plan. What I’ve learned is that whether we create our own failure or God leads us to it, if we allow Him to work in our lives, He can turn any failure into a detour that will bring glory and honor to Him.
Memory Verse: Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us. (Romans 5:3-5, NIV)
Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV® Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
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