Pleasing God, Making Disciples of Jesus Christ

Our Failings Don’t Make Us Failures

MICAH 7:7-10 – But as for me, I will look to the Lord; I will wait for the God of my salvation; my God will hear me. Rejoice not over me, O my enemy; when I fall, I shall rise; when I sit in darkness, the Lord will be a light to me. I will bear the indignation of the Lord because I have sinned against him, until he pleads my cause and executes judgment for me. He will bring me out to the light; I shall look upon his vindication. Then my enemy will see, and shame will cover her who said to me, “Where is the Lord your God?” My eyes will look upon her; now she will be trampled down like the mire of the streets.

THEME OF THE DAY. OUR FAILINGS DON’T MAKE US FAILURES. In today’s scripture, we are witnessing the prophet Micah in the throes of the most intense area of spiritual warfare a believer ever encounters – dealing with our sinning when confronted with Satan, the tempter and accuser of our souls. In the account, Micah has sinned against God and is being chastened by the Lord for it – I will bear the indignation of the Lord because I have sinned against him. And we should expect the same treatment when we sin. God loves us too much not to bring correction, painful correction, into our lives. Part of Micah’s discipline from the Lord and will be ours too, is the loss of sensing the Lord’s Presence in our lives – when I sit in darkness. Nothing is more painful for a sensitive-hearted Christian than to feel the absence of the Lord’s loving and joy-producing Presence. Should we yield to temptation and sin, this will happen. God knows that a break in sweet fellowship with Him is the quickest way to bring His sinning child back. When the Bible is dry and neglected, prayer is lifeless, mechanical and neglected, when church attendance is out of duty and dull, it might be time to get alone with God and see if there is sin we have not dealt with. Fellowship – a real communion with the Lord in His Word, prayer, and church – is the essence of the Christian life. It is the enjoyment of God in those three spiritual privileges that defines what it means to walk as a Christian. So, it makes perfect sense that the discipline of our Heavenly Father toward His sinning people would remove this fellowship to chastise them. Now don’t misunderstand me. We don’t lose our salvation but we will lose the joy of our salvation, like Micah, if we find tolerated sin in our lives. But there is a deeper lesson here.

Micah is talking to a real enemy to his soul. With passion and resolve, he proclaims, “Rejoice not over me, O my enemy.” Why say this? The context is Micah’s failing of the Lord and an enemy of some form is seizing the opportunity to remind him of such failings. One can almost hear the accusations, “Look at you. Failure. Can’t be true to your God. Failing all the time, right and left. He is done with you. Don’t you feel it? He has left you.” And don’t think these are not real experiences in the Christian life. They are. Read Revelation 12:10. This is our chief enemy’s work – to accuse us when we fail. He first tempts us, and when we yield, he comes rushing in with condemning accusations of our sinning. And when he does, like Micah, there is no self-defense. The devil is right in his accusations. We have let the guard on our hearts down and sinned. So what do we do? One of two things. First, we listen then believe the devil that we are washed up spiritual failures and live our lives as miserable Christians. Or we stand tall like Micah, own our sins, own our failures, but immediately remember God’s unwavering faithfulness to forgive and rescue us from our failings. Go back and read Micah’s fight against his enemy. It is in the strength and power of the Lord, not himself. And that is how we must daily fight our accuser. Start by being “Micah-like” and believe our failings don’t make us failures in the eyes of the Lord. They make us ready for His restoring grace and forgiveness that leads to greater humility and a life of sinning less!

PRAYER: “Father, help me not to believe the lies of Satan when I fail You and am tempted to believe I am a failure.”

QUOTE: “Believe God’s faithfulness in your failings of Him instead of living with unbelieving remorse over your failings”