Talking to a friend today who is battling failure…they shared how down they are about what they call,  “failing God” and falling for the same thing over and over again.

I asked them, “Which is more fruitful?  Focus on our failure or focus on Jesus and His Victory?”

Think on that for a moment…

We are called to live by faith, hope and love.  As followers of Jesus we are made to live in God’s grace.  We don’t earn His forgiveness and grace…we accept it…FREE of charge and without merit on our part.  Nothing we do can earn it.  Nothing beyond the simple work of believing.  (John 6:28-29), (Romans 10:9-10)

What would it look like if we made a friend of failure?  What if each face plant added to a tenacious heart of determination not to earn God’s love, which we can’t do in the first place, but to celebrate it?  What would it look like to make suffering serve you?  (A wink to one of my callers last week!)

The answer is simple, not easy.  

All eyes on Jesus.

Just as Peter had to hold Jesus’ hand to walk on water so must we.  Reach out and take the hand of the One who made you in His image, to display His character in the world and to be His Ambassadors on Earth.

What is His character?  

Love.

4  Love is patient and kind;

love does not envy or boast;

it is not arrogant 

5  or rude. It does not insist 

on its own way;

it is not irritable or resentful;

6  it does not rejoice at wrongdoing,

but rejoices with the truth. 

7  Love bears all things, 

believes all things, 

hopes all things, 

endures all things.

8  Love never ends.

(1 Corinthians 13:4-8a ESV)

And what is Love?  

The Apostle John answers this in his first letter to the churches, 

8  Anyone who does not love

does not know God, because

God is love.

(1 John 4:8 ESV)

GOD IS LOVE.

So is the simple answer Love?  Yes it is.  It is all eyes on God.  All eyes on Jesus.  And where do we get our daily dose of Love?  It can only come from the One who is Love.

This is why I pray you focus on Love today with all eyes on Jesus!

After-all, didn’t Jesus say that this is the most important thing in life?  

“You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all of your soul and with all your mind.  This is the great and first commandment.  And a second is like it:  You shall love your neighbor as yourself.  On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.”   (Matthew 22:37-40 ESV)

So go ahead and do that Bob Goff thing, Love God, Love People and do stuff!  Sure we will fall along the way but don’t let that stop you.  Use failure to build your faith by the strength of the One who made you in His everlasting and eternal image.  Learn to listen to His Holy Spirit and use your failure to the glory of God.  Not that you are earning anything but celebrating the Love you have in Christ Jesus the Lord.

All eyes on Jesus.

Amen.