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When You Messed Up (Praying Through Failure)

But go, tell His disciples and Peter, “He is going ahead of you to Galilee; you will see Him there just as He told you.” Mark 16:7

When we first see Peter in the gospels, he is overzealous and filled with fire. Always quick to speak and tell Jesus what he would never do. But after his denial and betrayal on Good Friday, Peter’s fire was replaced with fear and his charisma was replaced with shame.

When faced with his failure, Peter abandoned his calling and went back to what was familiar — fishing. But Peter couldn’t even catch a break there. He fished all night and caught nothing.

That is, until Jesus showed up on the shore. In one of the most beautiful full-circle moments in the Bible, Jesus meets Peter in his frustration and tells him to cast his nets again — just like He had told him to do three years before (Luke 5:1-11). It wasn’t until Peter caught a load of fish too big to carry that he realized the man on the shore was Jesus.

Once Peter recognized Him, he immediately swam to shore, where he found Jesus standing by a charcoal fire. The four gospels mention a charcoal fire like this only one other time — when Peter denied knowing the Lord on the night of His arrest. As the smoke from the fire filled Peter’s nose, shame and guilt must have filled him as the memories came rushing back to him.

But Jesus didn’t build that fire to punish Peter. He wanted to set Peter free — to give him a new memory. No longer would the smell of smoke remind Peter of the time he blew it, but instead that memory would be replaced with how Jesus’ grace covered it all. Jesus brought him back to the point of his greatest failure so he could experience the deepest grace.

On the other side of Peter’s failure was an assignment, which is why God singled him out by name to the women at the tomb — He wanted Peter to know in spite of his denial, He had not deserted him.

God never changed His mind about Peter, and He won’t change His mind about you either.

Your story doesn’t end in failure. God has grace for you today and an assignment for you tomorrow. Jesus didn’t conquer sin just so you could go to heaven one day — He wants you to experience freedom, hope, and grace today. Your shame has been buried. New life begins now. Resurrection power is here.

Father, I praise You because of the new beginning You continually offer me. May the failures I’ve experienced be the starting point of Your grace. Today, I trade my frustration for surrender and I ask You to open my eyes to the assignment You’ve prepared for me. When lies whisper to me, remind me of Your truth — because You conquered death and sin, I don’t have to live in shame! What a gift. In Jesus’ name, amen.