Prayer for Grace To Embrace The Failures As Well As The Times of Joy And Give Them All To God
Sunday June 14, 2020
EMBRACING FAILURE AS WELL AS SUCCESS
I don't know how successful or how much of a failure you feel you are today. We each have our own history of successes and brokenness. Every life is a mixture of moment of joy and pride and others of embarrassment and shame. Where some might succeed in business they might also be a total failure morally and in their personal relationships. Others are fun loving and have lots of friends but struggle to be responsible in education or in work habits. Some have strong abilities but face challenges of integrity or addiction. The truth is is that we are all strugglers, all in need of the continuing forgiveness and support of our loving God.
Many of us are familiar with the story of a woman Jesus met at a well. You can read the story in the Gospel of John chapter 4. The particular interest Jesus took in this woman that required Him to step beyond many of the prejudices of His day, and to intentionally make space for her when he was hot and tired is worth our notice. However, what has always most impressed me in this story is that when Jesus reveals to the woman all the sordid details of her broken past, she doesn't hang her head in embarrassment and shame. There's something about Jesus' knowing all that's gone wrong and still loving us and accepting us and making room for us that is very powerful. It was so powerful for this woman that she ran back to her village and instead of hiding in embarrassment from them she called out to get their attention and then told them:
The woman went back to the town and said to the people,
“Come, see a man who told me everything I ever did.
Could this be the Messiah?”
They came out of the town and made their way toward him.
John 4:28-30
Doesn't look or sound like someone hiding in humiliation and afraid of ridicule and gossip to me? I'm sure it doesn't to you either. It didn't to those who heard and saw the women because they did what she same and came to see Jesus and after spending time with Him:
They said to the woman, “We no longer believe just because
of what you said; now we have heard for ourselves,
and we know that this man really is the Savior of the world.”
John 4:42
And so my challenge and encouragement to each of us today is to give God all of who we are - our successes and our failures, our moments of humiliation as well as our moments of joy, and watch how He can fill us with dignity and use us to bless many others.
Lord, here we are, we are people you know to be weak with feet of clay and hearts that tremble. We are so weak that you describe us like dust. A little wind of adversity and we can make such a mess of the simplest of situations. Temptation comes and before we know it, we give in. Something that tests us confronts us and we complain and worry and get angry with you, almost on cue. You know that. You know us. You know the sins others see and You know the things that we've hidden in our souls that bring us shame and humiliation and worry us should anyone find out about these things.
For he knows how weak we are; he remembers we are only dust.
Psalm 103:14
Lord, we ask for the grace to be like this woman that You met, spoke to with truth and love, and who found the freedom in the truth - even the truth of her broken and shameful past - to joyfully accept and be herself and to reach out and make a difference in her community. Could that same thing happen for us? It seems so hard to believe with what we feel broken about and ashamed of and the people we know around us and the reactions we are pretty sure they would have if they just knew the kind of person we were when no one else is around.
Jesus said: Those who drink the water
I give will never be thirsty again.
It becomes a fresh, bubbling spring within them,
giving them eternal life.
John 4:14
Lord, first of all we want to confess whatever we've done wrong as sin. We simply want to agree with You that that's the way it's been. We have fallen short of Your wonderful plans for us. We need cleansing from our sin. We need living water flowing in us that washes us and keeps us fresh and clean, giving us the energy and joy and sense of Your presence that is so life-giving.
But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us.
2 Corinthians 4:7
Lord, we need the grace to accept that we are a mixed bag and that we carry the treasure of Your love and grace in these lives that are as ordinary and fragile as jars of clay. In fact, your promise is that You are able to show Your glory and strength in us when we accept and joyfully live this reality. We are who we are and You are God who has all-surpassing power to live in us and show us how to live a new way that impresses not only ourselves, but all who we meet.
Let your good deeds shine out for all to see,
so that everyone will praise your heavenly Father.
Matthew 5:16
Help us to live in truth and dignity today in such a way that many others will see the good You do through us and come to believe in you. Amen
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