What Do You Do When You Fail?

2 Corinthians 4:7 says – But we have this treasure in jars of clay, to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us. 

We are jars of clay. That means we are vulnerable, and easily broken. But inside our vulnerable, broken selves is the power of God. But that power isn’t in us to show off our own power. That power is in us to show off the powerful grace of God.   

Here is a test that will tell you whether or not you really grasp grace: what do you do when you fail? When you mess up? If you mess up and you run away from the Lord to try to clean yourself up and then come back, you don’t really understand grace, and what God has done for you in Christ. But if you mess up and you run to him, that’s evidence of grace.

Ed Welch said, “Everybody thinks sanctification looks like strength. Really what it looks like is weakness.” That’s the truth. Growing in grace might look to many like it’s failure. Sanctification looks like darkness and difficulty and pain and suffering. Show me someone who messes up but then runs to the Lord and cries and lays that before the Lord, pleads forgiveness, rests in that forgiveness, and gets up and continues to walk, and I’ll show you someone who understands grace. Show me someone who messes up, and they pull way back for a season until they can either forget about what they’ve done or at least get some kind of control around it, and I’ll show you somebody who doesn’t yet understand grace. They are acting as their own savior – they are living like I can clean myself up.

But friends, we are jars of clay, and God is the one who allows us to be broken open and spilled out. That way we stay spiritually needy. And spiritual neediness is the foundation for all godly change. For that power in our jars to be made manifest to the glory of God. 

“Living For Today With An Eye For Tomorrow”©