Confess & Forsake

If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, 

and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. 

1 John 1:9

When we fail there are Biblical guidelines which, if we follow them, can turn failure into success. To understand these guidelines, lets look at the example of Jonah.

Jonah was commanded by the Lord to go and preach repentance to the sinful nation of Nineveh. Instead of obeying God's voice, he headed the opposite direction. Even though he transgressed against God's command, his mission did not end in failure; Jonah was able to admit his wrong and take the necessary steps to get back in right standing with God.  

Jonah took the following steps to correct his failure. These are steps to take when we experience failure:

Ø      REVEALING:

When you fail, ask God to reveal the cause of that failure. 

Be assured: God has ways of letting you know when you have failed. 

A great storm at sea revealed Jonah was out of the will of God. Jonah admitted his guilt after this revelation.

And he said unto them, Take me up, and cast me forth into the sea; so shall the sea be calm unto you: for I know that for my sake this great tempest is upon you.  Jonah 1:12 

As long as you do not acknowledge your failure you will remain a failure:

He that covereth his sins shall not prosper; but whoso confesseth and forsaketh them shall have mercy.  Proverbs 28:13

If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.  1 John 1:8

Do not let any excuse prevent you from admitting failure. Here are some common ones:

          à     "People will lose confidence in me."

          à    "If I admit failure, it is admitting I was wrong."

          à     "I already failed, I might as well give up."

          à     "It's too late, I've done too much."

          à     "I am a bad example, so I should just quit."

          à     "I am too far out of God's will to get things right."

It is not necessary to reveal your failure publicly (although talking to your spiritual covering privately is necessary) unless it has affected the lives of others and you must seek their forgiveness. But you must always admit your failure to yourself and to God. 

This is the first step to change failure to success:

The sin must be revealed. You must confront it.

Ø       REPENTING:

After the cause of our failure is revealed, we must repent:

If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.   1 John 1:9

Have mercy upon me, O God, according to thy lovingkindness: according unto the multitude of thy tender mercies blot out my transgressions.  Wash me throughly from mine iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin.  Psalms 51:1-2

Jonah's great prayer of repentance is recorded in Jonah 2. Jonah acknowledged his sin before God, repented, and asked forgiveness. 

When we fail, come before the Lord in repentance. Ask God to forgive you for your failure. 

Be sure to forgive yourself, too!

For godly sorrow worketh repentance to salvation not to be repented of: but the sorrow of the world worketh death. 2 Corinthians 7:10

Ø       RETURNING:

Through prayer, the written Word of God, and the guidance of the Holy Spirit, God will reveal to you the point at which your failure began. You must then return; either physically or mentally, to that point and reverse your direction.

In the case of Jonah, he realized his failure began when he went the opposite direction from Nineveh. He had to return to this point of failure and reverse his direction.  Sometimes the failure begins in our mind and we must return to that place in our mind, address it and change or destroy that unGodly thought.  True repentance involves a change in direction. When you return to a point of failure you go back to where you first sinned and correct your error. This is done by. . .

Ø       RESTORING:

In the case of Jonah, when he recognized his failure began by heading the opposite direction from Nineveh, he reversed directions. He went towards Nineveh. He corrected his failure. 
  
So Jonah arose, and went unto Nineveh, according to the word of the Lord. Now Nineveh was an exceeding great city of three days' journey.   Jonah 3:3

He did what he could to make things right. This is called "restoring".

Sometimes we can do nothing to correct our failure except repent. In the example of King David, he could do nothing about his sin with Bathsheba after it was committed. The mistake was already made. The adultery was committed and her husband was dead. There was nothing he could do to correct it except repent.

For I acknowledge my transgressions: and my sin is ever before me. Against thee, thee only, have I sinned, and done this evil in thy sight: that thou mightest be justified when thou speakest, and be clear when thou judgest. Psalms 51:3-4

But in situations where we can return to the point of failure and make restitution, as in the case of Jonah,  we must do so. We may have to apologize to someone. We may have to return something we have stolen or admit we told a lie. These are all examples of restoration.

We also need time to restore our self and rebuild our spiritual strength after failure. We may need to temporarily step down from ministry responsibilities. We will definitely need time alone with God.  We may need spiritual intervention, as did King David, to help us understand and come to terms with the seriousness of the sin committed.

Here are some ways to restore our spiritual strength:

¨  Study God's Word.

¨  Spend time in prayer, fasting and meditating.

¨  Review the basic causes for failure so you will be able to avoid future failures.  Ask God to reveal and help you correct any problem areas in your life.

Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me.   Psalms 51:10

¨  Review strategies of spiritual warfare to help you wage more effective warfare next time. 

¨  Rest physically. Man is body, soul, and spirit. When your physical body is exhausted, Satan can take advantage and affect your soul and spirit and cause you to fail.

After we have taken these steps, we put our failure behind us and go on to success. Jonah put his failure behind Him. The Lord spoke unto him a second time: 

And the word of the Lord came unto Jonah the second time, saying, Arise, go unto Nineveh, that great city, and preach unto it the preaching that I bid thee.  Jonah 3:1-2

This time he quickly obeyed. In Nineveh, Jonah led one of the greatest revivals in history. The whole city repented. By following the steps of revealing, repenting, returning, and restoring, his failure was turned to success.

The Bible contains many accounts of men like Jonah. These men failed but admitted their failure and asked forgiveness of God. When they did, God never failed to forgive and provide new direction. This is the Biblical pattern for turning failure into success.

God can do the same for us! He is not looking at our past failures. He is not looking at you as you are today. He is seeing the man or woman. . . the person you can be if you only walk in obedience to Him.

Apostle Paul wrote:

For we would not, brethren, have you ignorant of our trouble which came to us in Asia, that we were pressed out of measure, above strength, insomuch that we despaired even of life.  But we had the sentence of death in ourselves, that we should not trust in ourselves, but in the God which raiseth the dead; Who delivered us from so great a death, and doth deliver, in whom we trust that He will yet deliver us.   2 Corinthians 1:8-10

Apostle Paul explained that problems in Asia taught him an important lesson. . .

"we should not trust in ourselves, but in God." 

This is a great lesson to learn from failure. We cannot trust in our self. Our power, our authority, our success as a spiritual believer is assured only in Christ Jesus. Apostle Paul looked beyond the natural world to see the spiritual benefits of problems, temptations, trials, and failures.  He understood we have no reason to despair. Despite the fact that our outer humanity is falling apart and decaying, our inner humanity is breathing in new life every day. The short-lived pains of this life are creating for us an eternal glory that doesn't compare to anything we know here. So we don't set our sights on the things we can see with our eyes. All of that is fleeting and will eventually fade away. Instead, we focus on the things we cannot see, which live on forever:

For which cause we faint not: but though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day.  For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory; While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things, which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal.  2 Corinthians 4:16-18

Apostle Paul had learned that even though the outward man perishes, the inward man was being renewed. Instead of giving up, Paul learned from failure and went on to success.   He lets us know that God . . .

            "Delivered"                             (In the past)

            "Doth deliver"                        (In the present)

            "Will yet deliver"                   (In the future)
                                                                                               2 Corinthians 1:10

. . . us from all of our problems, trials, temptations, and failures. He said we were...

            Troubled                    . . . BUT NOT DISTRESSED.

            Perplexed                   . . . BUT NOT IN DESPAIR.

            Persecuted                 . . . BUT NOT FORSAKEN.

            Cast down                  . . . BUT NOT DESTROYED!

                                                                                                   2 Corinthians 4:8-9

In spite of all the perplexities, persecution, trouble, and despair, Apostle Paul was able to say in the closing days of his life:

I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith.   2 Timothy 4:7

Never lose sight on the faithfulness of God to forgive so that we can be restored into right standing with him and go on to complete our assignment in Him.

(Biblical Studies)

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