Hidden PotentialSample

In Exodus 2, Moses’s life took a turn for the worse when he took the life of an Egyptian soldier. It was a rash move, a horrible crime, and a moral failure for this man who had been raised as royalty. Murder was an offense punishable by death.

Maybe your failure isn’t as extreme as that of Moses. However, the weight of failure can make you feel weak in faith and stagnant in your spiritual life, unable to advance in your relationship with God or with others. Author and motivational speaker Zig Ziglar encouraged people to “remember that failure is an event, not a person.” We often allow failure, no matter how insignificant, to define and direct our future. Moses’s life teaches us that failure may fracture our faith, but it doesn’t have to destroy it.

The plain and simple fact is, nobody wants to fail, but everybody does. It’s our response to the failure that matters. To illustrate this, let’s talk about Moses, his failures, and how he dealt with them. For a moment, he almost let them define and defeat him. But God—perhaps two of the best words in the Bible (they can turn a story on a dime)—didn’t allow Moses’s failure to wreck his potential. In fact, God knew exactly how Moses would fail and still chose him to be the leader of His people. Now that is mind-blowing. God knows ahead of time what wrong we will do yet still chooses us to participate in His kingdom work.

Moses’s murder of this Egyptian was both a failure and a sin. Though the effects of both are similar, there is one obvious difference between the two. Sin requires forgiveness from God; failure does not unless prompted by the Spirit. It’s for this reason that we should completely examine ourselves through the light of God’s Word and pray to let the Holy Spirit identify our sin. The Holy Spirit shows us where we went wrong and offended God and possibly others. This isn’t easy, but God is faithful. He will hear our questions and tenderly respond to them with grace and mercy. He is for us, not against us. God desires for us to move forward and not only believe we are a worthwhile possibility but to live like we believe it.

What is God revealing to you about failure? What is one failure that is hanging over you and holding you back from being the person God created you to be?