How to Walk on Water

Chapter 10: Struggling with Failure

“And God told Jonah, go to Ninevah….” —Jonah 2:3

Is there ever a perfect person, parent, perfect wife, mother, father, preacher, or teacher? Every person alive wishes he or she had done better in some area of life. When the Bible uses the term “perfect,” it means complete, not faultless. Our part in the Gospel is to love the Lord with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength and to love our neighbor as ourselves. We all have flaws, and even though we are not perfect in knowledge or wisdom, and we are not free from failings, weakness, or neediness, we can still be free from the bondage of sin and have the power to live right every day.

Jonah disobeyed God’s directive and ran. Realizing that the storm was because of his disobedience, he asked to be thrown overboard. God was not through with Jonah, however, and prepared a fish to confine him until he came to his senses. Seeing that Jonah acknowledged his wrong, God didn’t dismiss him and in fact still wanted to use him. It is not up to us to decide whether or not God is finished with a person. If he or she truly repents, God may still send that person to his or her own “Nineveh.”

Peter sinned when he denied Christ, but after Peter’s bitter repentance, he saw he needed to change and God welcomed him with open arms. He did not rub Peter’s face with his sin, or say “Peter, I just don’t see how you could be one of my apostles and be that weak.” Instead He challenged Peter’s heart with “Lovest thou me more than these?” and used Peter greatly on the day of Pentecost. Unfortunately, Peter still had a weakness with people that he had not fully overcome, and when Peter withdrew himself from the Gentiles in Galatians out of fear of what the Jewish brethren would say of him, Paul scolded Peter about his sin. Yet God was still not through with Peter and saw fit to include his Epistles as part of His divinely inspired Word. God does give second chances, and sometimes more, if He sees fit. He can have mercy on “whomsoever” He wishes.

Galatians 6:1 teaches that if a brother or sister in Christ is overtaken in a “fault,” a spiritual person should help restore that fallen person in the spirit of meekness. The word “fault” in Galatians and in 1 Peter 2:20 is Ham-ar-ratos, which means to violate God’s law, sin, or transgress the law of God. People who fall can be restored. God does not withdraw His support and help because of their past problems. When the power of the blood is applied to a fallen brother or sister’s heart, like Paul, he or she can then say, “…forgetting those things that are behind and reaching forward to the things that are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 3:13-14).

“For what glory is it, if when ye be buffeted for your faults ye take it patiently…” I’m stopping the quotation here because this is where some people stop not only in their quoting but also in their thinking. It is true that if a problem arises because of a person’s fault, ignorance, lack of wisdom and understanding, or disobedience, that person will have to suffer the consequences. But despite the fact that this scripture in its entirety is encouraging submission in the servant/master relationship, people often apply it out of context to every misstep a Christian makes, as if there is no help coming from God, even if the person who committed the fault has repented and it has been covered by the of blood of Jesus. Even if the consequences come as the result of an honest error in judgment, people will often use this scripture to justify saying, “Too bad; you caused your own problem.”

This scripture is more accurately translated as, “for what glory is it, if when you are persecuted or have problems with your master because of your sinful acts, you take it patiently?” Indeed, God receives no glory when we patiently take things because of our wrongs. A fault is a fault no matter how well we take the consequences. We cannot lift our hands to God and say we are suffering for His glory if our sufferings are brought on by acts of sin, such as stealing, cursing our bosses out, or having adulterous relationships.

Nonetheless, the blood of Jesus Christ works and God will forgive us if we acknowledge Him. The only unpardonable sin is the blasphemy of the Holy Ghost (See Psalm 103:9, Micah 7:18, and Matthew 12:31). But failures are not descriptions of ourselves; they are events that God forgives.