Everybody Fails!
Men fail – Women fail
Young people fail – Old People fail
Poor people fail – Rich people fail
Even you fail, I know I do.
Because everybody fails.
Since everybody fails, failure can not be how we judge our lives.
In Proverbs 24:16, Solomon said:
“Though a righteous man falls seven times, he rises again, but the wicked are brought down by calamity.”
Notice from this text that both the righteous and evil man falls, the difference between the righteous and evil is whether they get up from their fall. The righteous man, the good man falls down but gets up. The wicked man falls down and just wallows in his failure.
Have you messed up? Try again.
Avoiding failing is not the sign of a righteous person.
Not giving up is the sign of a righteous person. Try, try again!
It is the Godly thing to do.
It is how we are successful in our reach for eternal life with God.
It is also how we become successful here on earth.
Maybe you know the true story of Harlan. Harlan was a sixth-grade drop out. Over his life He worked as a farmhand, a railroad worker, an insurance salesman, a tire salesman, and had a failed attempt in politics. At the end of all these jobs, he retired broke. With little more than social security checks he decided to sell chicken, more specifically a chicken recipe. He went from business to business asking restaurants, cafes, and grills to use his recipe and pay him 5 cent for each piece they sold. He tried for two years. “No, no, no,” he kept hearing. In fact, he heard 1,009 rejections before someone finally said “Yes.”
We all know him now as Colonel Harlan Sanders of Kentucky Fried Chicken fame. When he died in 1980 he was a rich man, a millionaire. He failed 1,009 times, but he tried and tried again. Winners keep on keeping on. Losers quit!
Let’s go back to that beautiful text in Proverbs and put the names of a couple of people into the text. Remember the text, “Though a righteous man falls seven times, he rises again, but the wicked are brought down by calamity.”
Here are the two names: Peter and Judas. Both of them failed.
Peter failed. He bragged that he would never deny Jesus, but before the next morning he had denied Jesus three times. He even took an oath before the enemies of Jesus that he did not know Jesus. Feeling his failure, he wept bitterly. Jesus forgave him and a few days later Peter preached the first gospel sermon.
Judas failed. He betrayed Jesus for money – thirty pieces of silver. He regretted his act of betral and tried to return the money. When he could not and so he hanged himself. Now let’s read that verse again:
“Though a righteous man (Peter) falls seven times, he rises again, but the wicked (Judas) are brought down by calamity.”
Never give up.
Failing and trying again is the mark of a righteous person.
Never, never give up!
Lonnie Davis
HeartWord – Proverbs 26:13
“A sluggard says, ‘There’s a lion in the road, a fierce lion roaming the streets!'”
NOTE: A lazy person does not see himself or herself as lazy. They always have an excuse for not doing what they should do.