When You fail

I have just finished knitting a blanket to send off to Malawi, and I was already thinking about making my next one. I had some wool left over from the finished blanket, so out came the knitting needles and I started it. I plan to make this blanket in strips, rather than squares, so there will be less sewing and not so many ends of wool to sew in.

I had done quite a lot of the strip, when I noticed there was a mistake. I had done a wrong row and the pattern didn’t look right. I was disappointed at first, but then realised that I could carry on and incorporate the same thing at intervals up the strip.

We all make mistakes at different times in our lives. Some of them are not that serious, like my knitting, but others have consequences, such as when we make wrong decisions, or when we say the wrong thing. We can’t put the clock back and undo those mistakes, but the Lord has an encouraging word for us in the text for today (Psalm 37:23-24).

He is the One who is always watching us, and He is interested in every detail of our lives. He is the one who picks us up when we fall. He doesn’t leave us lying in the dirt. He hears us when we cry out to Him, and He is able to help us deal with any consequences of our mistakes, and He can turn them to good. It is true that we learn the most when we do things wrong if we are willing to learn from our mistakes and bring them to Jesus.

Here are some encouraging words in Micah 7:7-8: ‘As for me, I look to the Lord for help. I wait confidently for God to save me, and my God will certainly hear me. Do not gloat over me, my enemies! For though I fall, I will rise again. Though I sit in darkness, the Lord will be my light’. So never give up hope, because God is faithful.

Prayer: Now all glory to God, who is able to keep you from falling away and will bring you with great joy into His glorious presence without a single fault. All glory to Him who alone is God, our Saviour through Jesus Christ our Lord (Jude 24-25). So be it, Lord!