Feeling Better: Devotions From Time of GraceSample

My Life: I'm a failure

Yesterday a friend told me, "I think my wife and I have lost our teenage daughter. She despises us, is openly defiant day after day, and can't wait to move out of the house." This dear guy feels like a failure. I can only imagine the gloom in his wife's heart.

Know the feeling? Have you blamed yourself for the wreckage of something major in your life? Are you divorced? Been fired? Failed a course? Dropped out of school? Had a child out of wedlock? Ruined a business? Had an abortion? Had to declare bankruptcy?

Among all the great things about Christianity, here is a promise near the top: God does not despise us when we fail. The heart of the gospel is that God loves losers and the broken. Yes, he loves failures too.

Sometimes we have to be really, really empty to be ready for God to fill us up. One of life's supreme ironies is that sometimes God gets his best work done through badly broken people whom he is leading out of major crises.

"With your help, I can advance against a troop; with my God, I can scale a wall" (Psalm 18:29).