Daily Devotional: Monday, March 29

Speaker: Ben Sigman

Theme: Failing Forward

Weekend Music links on iTunes: Salvation is Hereby Hillsong United; Hosannaby Paul Baloche; Cannons by Phil Wickham; Lead Me to the Crossby Hillsong United.

Read: Psalm 42

Bible Challenge: Luke 8

Think: I was standing in the church lobby this morning before service talking with a friend about how the people who have the most vital walk with the Lord seem to be the ones who have been through some of the toughest challenges. We went into hear Pastor Ben and the message this weekend was about just that -making the most out of tough situations! Amazing how the Holy Spirit works sometimes!

I remember reading once about a high school commencement speaker who was the president of some large corporation - successful, respected, worked hard and earned his way to the top. He was known to be a pretty inspirational guy so it made sense they would ask him to speak to the graduating seniors - however, his message wasn't quite what they'd expected...

The speaker told the students this: "If I could have one hope for you as you go out into the world, it would be this: I hope you fail. And I hope that you fail at something that is important to you." (Not quite the words of encouragement and inspiration usually heard at those moments, hmmm?!) He went on to say how his younger years especially included one failure after the other, until he learned to see failure as an effective teacher.

That wisdom holds true doesn't it? God seems to do some of His best work through those seasons of our lives. (Whether the failure is simply from circumstance OR when it is of our own making!) In fact we see God's people sharing that same experience throughout Scripture - many of the Psalms were born in seasons of failure. Out of desperation came their cry, "As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, O God." (Psalm 42:1-2).

A recurring story of the Bible is that deep abiding faith rises from the dark difficult places of failure. It there that often we are finally able to grab a hold of the love, wisdom, and guidance of our God. Failure is definitely an effective teacher when we allow it to be used by the Great Teacher!

Do: Look at the difficulties you're facing or failures you've experienced. Have you seen God  teach you through those? Have they made you better or driven you away from Him? Cooperate with what the Lord wants to do in your heart and life through those hard times.

Pray: Father, I don't want anything I go through to be wasted... Use the good the bad and the ugly things I go through to teach me how to be who You want me to be. Show me how to live in a way that brings You honor and glory. As I go through struggles I choose today to look for the good that You will bring out of those situations. In Jesus' Name, Amen.

The eDevotional is written each week by a team of volunteers from Timberlake Church.

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