Focus: Failure Isn't Final!

Text: Lk.5:4

"Launch out into the deep, and let down your nets for a draught."

We live in a world that God Himself created. At the end of the sixth day, after God was perfectly done with everything, we read, "And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was VERY GOOD" (Gen.1:31). So this world is a good world as God created it. What that means is that the bad and the ugly are strangers here. 

Evil is a foreigner in this world. Failure is never meant to be final, and it will never be the end of your story. The origin of the universe is rooted in the goodness of God. God is good, and all He does is absolutely good.

Man yielded himself to the lies of Satan, and as a result of it, evil, pain, sorrow and suffering were introduced into the world. But here's the good news: it is a done deal that good will eventually and ultimately prevail over evil in the end. Ugliness and failure will not last forever. Goodness will have the last laugh in this world. The owner of the world has ensured that His world will not continue to move in the wrong direction. 

It's a world without ending, but He will end evil in it and restore it to what He originally intended for it.

Our text is about Peter and his colleagues. They were fishermen and had toiled all through the night without catching any fish. They failed, and it was a horrible experience. They depended on the catch to feed their families, but on that night they could not succeed in catching any fish. They toiled in vain and wasted their energy. Only God can tell how powerless, helpless and hopeless they felt in the morning for not having any fish to show for their efforts.

Then Christ came into the picture, and said to Peter, "Launch out into the deep with your nets." Reluctantly, he obeyed and launched out his nets into the deep. Luke reports that "when they had this done, they inclosed a great multitude of fishes: and their net brake. And they beckoned unto their partners, which were in the other ship, that they should come and help them. And they came, and filled both the ships, so that they began to sink" (Lk.5:6-7). What a miracle! 

The instructions you obey will determine the success you'll get.

Just look at fish everywhere! Their net broke and their ships sank. Partners were called upon to help out. The success was unimaginable. It was mind boggling. They failed at night, but succeeded in the day. Weeping endures only for a night, but joy comes in the morning. They failed in one moment and succeeded in the next. Christ made it possible. He made them succeed in the same place where they had recorded total failure.

Jesus Christ knows how to turn the place of failure into the place of success, the place of defeat into the place of victory, the place of sorrow into the place of joy, and the place of gloom and doom into the place of goodness and glory. Indeed, failure is not final.

Do what God is telling you to do. Take that risk. Launch into deep. Stop rigmaroling on the surface. Take that one bold step. That one bold step is capable of turning your life around. The God you serve uses your failure as a raw material to manufacture your miracle.

Christ never fails in anything, and He will not fail in your life. He will make a success story out of your life. You will be a testimony to what your God can do.

Say to yourself loudly, and say it seven times, 'Failure Isn't Final!' I don't care how many times you have failed in the past. God has already concluded a plan that will guarantee your success. Your success will serve as the burial ground for all your failures. Just trust God and take action. Failure is not final.

by Bishop Moses E. Peter