Draw Near – 365 Guides to Greater Intimacy with GodSample

FAILURES

A young businessman recently took his life because he could not face failure. His prosperous business started to fail and, when every effort to rescue it fell short, he shot himself. While we often do not tolerate those who fail and look with disdain on them, how wonderful that God does not adopt the same attitude. He is in the business of restoring failures.

A classic example of total failure was young John Mark. Pampered by his benevolent uncle, he traveled with him and Paul on a missionary journey. But he became homesick and cried until he got to go home. This apparently infuriated Paul. When John Mark later wanted to rejoin the team, Paul would not let him and even traded sharp words with Uncle Barnabas. Paul and Barnabas separated over the matter. Mark was labeled a failure, and nobody wanted him as their minister. God, however, restored this young man to a place of great influence. How thrilling it must have been to receive the message from Paul: Get Mark and bring him with you, for he is useful to me for ministry. Out of failure, God raised a young giant. John Mark continued to be used, and today he is well-known by the Gospel which bears his name.

Looking back over our lives, we are often tempted to count the failures and feel so worthless. May we remember, however, that God restores failures and makes great witnesses of them. From our deepest hearts we rejoice, because we who have failed and come short of His glory have been restored to fellowship by Christ.