We can trust God with our FAILURE.

I have to admit; this is a hard one. When we fail, and we all fail, it is hard to recover. And when we fail repeatedly, we are prone to cynicism. But, there’s a big difference between “I have not yet” and “I can’t ever” if God is involved. Many times, our best teacher is our last failure.

In basketball, one of the most important skills for players to have is the ability to rebound. Rebounds occur because a shot was missed. There is no need for a rebound unless something has been missed. If a shot was missed, that means a shot was attempted. But somehow something went wrong in the attempt that caused the shot to be missed, and therefore we need a rebound.

Any good coach will want their player to go for a rebound on their missed shot. The player shouldn’t walk off the court, quit the game, or throw in the towel because they have missed a shot. A good player will go back up for the ball and retrieve it to shoot again. In the Bible, there are lots of people (David, Peter, Paul) who missed shots. Many leaders miss their target and deal with the consequences of missing their shot. A study of the Bible turns up many people God used who were on the rebound. You may be on the rebound. If so, you can trust God with your past failures.

Have you ever thought about why the windshield on your car is so much larger than the rearview mirror? I suppose it would not be very easy to move forward if your vision was dominated by what is behind you. When driving, it is essential to remember that we should glance back but gaze forward. Imagine if you saw someone driving, and they were staring into their rearview mirror the whole time. Unless they were driving in reverse, some bad things could happen. First, they could be so focused on what is behind them that they would gradually slow down and eventually stop. Second, while continuing to move forward, they most likely would not stay in their lane, and might even swerve off the road altogether. Last, they may remain on course but never enjoy the view of what is ahead until it has already passed. Glance back but gaze forward.

I love this psalm.

“Commit your way to the Lord; trust in Him, and He will act.” Psalm 37:5

Committing your way to the Lord means submitting your life and daily events to the will of God. Even after failure. Just keep rebounding and going for the next shot. When you do this, you will experience what He wants for you.

Look again at what it says.

“Commit your way to the Lord; trust in Him, and He will act.” Psalm 37:5

If you keep working at what God has for you, HE WILL ACT! Eventually, God will reward our confidence in Him and show that our confidence was wisdom. We can’t keep looking back on what happened in the past. C. H. Spurgeon said, “Our destiny shall be joyfully accomplished if we confidently entrust all to our Lord.”

We can trust God with our FAILURE.