Your past failure doesn’t define or determine your future.
Table of Contents
Fear of Failure
Maybe the one thing that keeps us from advancing the gospel, even more than our fear, is our failure.
It was a few years ago, our kids were still little, when we bought our first iPad. It was “Mom’s” iPad, but you know how this works. Pretty soon it had more kid games on it than it had apps for Mom. And I still remember when one day, it went missing. It was weird. I noticed the kids weren’t playing with it as much. And I couldn’t find it. I asked the kids, “Hey, where’s Mom’s iPad?” To which they each responded with, “I don’t know.”
Then, I finally found it, hidden against the wall with some other things. I opened the cover to discover that the screen had been cracked.
Hey, Ella Grace, do you know what happened to Mom’s iPad? Nope.
Hey Will, do you know what happened to mom’s iPad? Um…, Nope!
And so the mystery of the cracked iPad screen began. Seems like it just happened on its own. Weird, huh?
The Cover Up
But this is what we do, isn’t it? From the time when we’re little kids, when we do something that’s wrong, when we’re afraid we might get in trouble, we try to hide it. Cover it up.
And some of us are really good at covering up what we’ve done. We’re experts at covering our tracks, hiding our secrets & not letting anyone know what we did.
Our fear is that if people knew what we did, they would no longer love us, accept us, or value us. And what’s worse, we feel like if God knew what we did that He would no longer love us, accept us or value us.
We’re not sure we’re forgiven or can be forgiven.
How can we be on mission with God if we’re not sure God wants us on His mission team?
Epic Failure
And this is why I love the story of Moses. Moses was no doubt a great leader for the people of God. He was unquestionably a hero of faith. But he was far from perfect. That’s why his story is so relevant to our story. Because God has never been about using perfect people to bring His plans to life.
Before Moses became a great leader for God, we learn about an epic failure in his life. And if you’ve ever experienced an epic failure, I want you to know there is hope for you too.
11 Many years later, when Moses had grown up, he went out to visit his own people, the Hebrews, and he saw how hard they were forced to work. During his visit, he saw an Egyptian beating one of his fellow Hebrews.
Quick side note… You have to wonder, was he really surprised to see how hard his fellow Hebrews were forced to work? Was he completely unaware of their oppression? Had he lost touch with reality? Lost touch with His mom, his dad, his sister? How could he be so blind?
If we’re not careful, we can be quick to jump to judgement on Moses, but the truth is that living in the land of the wealthy & affluent often makes us blind to the oppression of others. Even those close to us. We tend to loose perspective real quick when we live in Pharaoh’s house.
12 After looking in all directions to make sure no one was watching, Moses killed the Egyptian and hid the body in the sand.
Moses felt anger & he was right to. But what he did with that was wrong. Moses was a witness to an incredible injustice. And injustice should always move us into action. But we must carefully consider what that action is and have the courage to respond in the right way. Moses had an opportunity to act in a courageous way, but he choose cowardice.
Moses could have gone to the Princess that he called, “Mom.” Or he could have walked right into the court of Pharaoh & spoken with the most powerful person in the world who he also happened to call, “Grandpa.” But Moses didn’t have the courage to approach his adoptive grandfather or his adoptive mother. That might have put his cushy lifestyle in jeopardy!
True courage to do the right thing often means risking your comfort & it will often cost you something significant.
13 The next day, when Moses went out to visit his people again, he saw two Hebrew men fighting. “Why are you beating up your friend?” Moses said to the one who had started the fight.
14 The man replied, “Who appointed you to be our prince and judge? Are you going to kill me as you killed that Egyptian yesterday?”
Then Moses was afraid, thinking, “Everyone knows what I did.”
Word is out about what Moses did the day before. His private sin has become public knowledge.
It’s then that Moses feels fear!
Ever been there? Ever been found out. Ever realized that your secret is not a secret?
15 And sure enough, Pharaoh heard what had happened, and he tried to kill Moses. But Moses fled from Pharaoh and went to live in the land of Midian.
Grandpa sets out to kill Moses. Pharaoh is probably thinking, “I should have killed him as soon as my daughter brought him home 40 years ago!”
Now, in the blink of an eye, Moses is no longer Egyptian, & he’s no longer Hebrew. His lack of courage has left him completely alone & on the run. Fear leaves you lonely. Sin isolates you.
So Moses, in fear, runs away & hides.
What about you?
What do you do when you’re found out? When your past sins become public knowledge? Do you run away & hide when you’re found out? Truth is, we’re not that different from our friend Moses.
We hold Moses up as a man of faith, a man of courage, a hero in the Bible, but this is what happens when courage fails.
But God wasn’t done with Moses & God isn’t done with you either. And if you’ve ever experienced an epic failure then take heart.
You can take heart because your life isn’t judged on the merit of a moment. God is more interested in your journey than He is with your most recent lapse in judgement.
Your past failure doesn’t define or determine your future. God does.
In fact, more often than not, as we’ll see with Moses, God often allows you to leverage your past mistakes to benefit others in the future.
You can run & try to hide from your past but you cannot hide your past from God.
And it may be that you do need to get alone in a desert for a while so God can speak to you. That’s what God does with Moses. He gets him alone in the desert so that He can speak with him. It’s there that God approaches Moses where he is as he is with His plans for his future. It’s there that Moses learns that despite his epic failure in the past God has epic plans for his future.
And God has plans for you too.
Jesus wants to forgive you of your failure because He has plans for your future.
Like Moses, He’s not done with you yet. There’s more to your story. Don’t give up on God because of your past mistakes. He has not given up on you.
I serve as the Co-Senior Minister at First Colony Church of Christ in Sugar Land, TX. I enjoy sports, running, fishing & life with the family. I’ve been in ministry since 1999. My wife Alisha & I have three amazing children, Will, Ella Grace & Emma Love. Thank you for stopping by my website!
