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HIS
SERVANTS' MINISTRY
www.hisservants.org
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FAILURES
"Failures?" some may say; “we thought there were no failures in
the life of faith!” There ought not to be, and need
not be; but sometimes there are. We must deal with facts.
No teacher of God’s Word ever says that it is impossible
not to sin. We ALL have at times been overcome by a moment
of temptation. When speaking of sin here, I mean conscious,
known sin. I refer simply to that which comes within the range
of our consciousness.
When a true believer, finds
himself overwhelmed by sin, he is either completely discouraged
and wants to give up; or he tries to cover up his sin, and
refuses to be honest about it. Doing either one of these hinders
our real growth and progress in our life of holiness. The
only way to face the sad fact is to call the thing by its
right name, and discover, if possible, the reason and the
cure. Our commitment to God requires the utmost honesty with
Him and ourselves. A sudden failure is NO reason for being
discouraged and giving up all as lost. Sanctification (being
set apart for God) is not a thing to be picked up at a certain
stage of our experience, and forever after possessed with
no failures, it is a life to be lived day by day, and hour
by hour. We may for a moment turn aside from a path, but the
path is not destroyed by our wandering, and can be instantly
regained.
In our walk of faith, we will
have momentary failures, which are sad and greatly hated,
but they need not disturb our soul continually. Let us remember
when we sin, we must return to God, and the sooner, the better.
Our sin is no reason to stop trusting Him, instead it is a
reason why we must trust Him more than ever.
Whatever it was that caused
us to have the failure, it is certain that there will be NO
help in discouragement. When a child who is learning to walk,
falls, does he stay down? Does he refuse to take another step?
NO! He gets up and tries again. So it is with a believer who
is seeking to learn how to live and walk by faith. We CANNOT
give up in despair because of having fallen into sin. The
only way is to get up and try again.
We must not abandon ourselves to utter discouragement when
we have failure in our lives. We must immediately face the
evil and get rid of it, and once more, the sooner, the better!
Joshua 7:13 Up, sanctify the people, and say, Sanctify yourselves
against to morrow: for thus saith the Lord God of Israel,
There is an accursed thing in the midst of thee, O Israel:
thou canst not stand before thine enemies, until ye take away
the accursed thing from among you. [KJV] “Up,
sanctify the people,” is always God’s
command. “Lie down and
be discouraged,” is what the enemy wants.
We must go immediately to the Lord, after having sinned against
Him. It might seem to us that we should suffer for our sin
first for a while, and let our conscience accuse us of our
wrong doing. It's hard for us to believe that the Lord is
willing to receive us back into loving fellowship with Himself
immediately. He really doesn’t want us to feel sorry
for two or three days first. If we linger, it makes our discouragement
and remorse separate us further from God.
Jeremiah 3:22 Return, ye backsliding children, and I will heal your
backslidings. Behold, we come unto thee; for thou art the
Lord our God. [KJV] God knows our yearning love. The
fact is, the same moment we feel the consciousness of having
sinned, ought to bring also the consciousness of being forgiven.
This is essential to an unwavering walk in the highway of
holiness. No
separation from God should be tolerated even for an instant.
How can we walk in this path?
By continually looking to Jesus, moment by moment. If or when
we take our eyes off Him, to look at our own sin and weakness,
we automatically leave the path. Believers, as we trust
in faith, enter this path. If we find ourselves overcome
by sin, must run to the Lord with it instantly. We must believe God's Word. 1 John 1:9 If we confess
our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins,
and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. [KJV]
We must never try to hide our
sin, we must never trey to salve it over with excuses, we
must never try to push it out of our memory. We must confess
our sin, and completely put it away from us. We must
believe, then and there, that God is, according to His word,
faithful and just to forgive us of our sin, and that He does
do it. We must claim His immediate forgiveness and immediate cleansing by faith. We must trust Him more than
ever.
We must commit ourselves more
completely to the Lord, that His mighty power may work more
perfectly in us. We must forget
our sin as soon as it is confessed and forgiven. We must
not dwell on it, and yield to distress and remorse.
Philip. 3:13 Brethren, I count not myself
to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those
things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things
which are before, [14] I press toward the mark for the prize
of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. [KJV]
There are times
that evil may be hidden in something that looks good. Beneath
what may seem zeal for the Truth, may be hidden a judging,
condemning spirit, or maybe we lean to our own understanding.
Beneath what may seem to be Christian faithfulness, may be
hidden a vast absence of Christian love. Beneath what may
seem to be strong faith, may be hidden a great chasm of doubt
in God. I believe our blessed Guide, the indwelling Holy Spirit,
is always secretly showing us these things by continual little
twinges and pangs of conscience, so that we are left without
excuse. But it is SO easy to disregard His gentle voice, and
to convince ourselves that everything is all right. It is
this fatal evil that will continue, hidden in our midst causing
us defeat and failure in the most unexpected times and places.
In order to prevent failure,
or to discover its cause if we have failed, it is necessary
that we should keep continually before us this prayer, “Search
me, O God, and know my heart; try me and know my thoughts;
and see if there be any evil way in me, and lead me in the
way everlasting” (Psalm 139:23).
There is something very deceiving about our sufferings over
our failures. We may seem to ourselves to be completely absorbed
with the glory of God, but our hearts may be self centered.
Self-love is touched in a tender spot by the discovery that
we are not as good as we thought we were. The only right way
to treat our failures is neither to justify nor condemn ourselves
on account of them, but to lay them bare before the Lord.
Our progress is aided far more
by a simple, peaceful turning to God, than by all our remorse
over our backsliding from
Him. We must be faithful, turning quietly to Him alone, the
moment you know what you have done. His Presence will deliver
you from the horrid snares which have trapped you. We
should never forget for a moment, no matter how often we may
fail, that the Lord Jesus is well able to deliver us out of
the hands of our enemies.
Luke 1:74 That
he would grant unto us, that we being delivered out of the
hand of our enemies might serve him without fear, [75] In
holiness and righteousness before him, all the days of our
life. [KJV]
Hebrews 7:25 Wherefore he is able also
to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him, seeing
he ever liveth to make intercession for them. [KJV] Let
us never be satisfied until we are completely pliable in His
hands, and have learned to trust Him with our every breath. He loves us with an abundant,
unquenchable love! TRUST HIM!
Col. 1:10 That
ye might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, being
fruitful in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge
of God; [KJV]
Hebrews 13:21 Make you perfect in every
good work to do his will, working in you that which is wellpleasing
in his sight, through Jesus Christ; to whom be glory for ever
and ever. Amen. [KJV]
A GIFT, unequaled, book
Accountability
Christ Is The Door, book
Comfort From God
Devotion
Failures
How To Live In God's Power
Loneliness
No Respecter of Persons
Submission and Servanthood
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