Before Jonas Salk discovered the vaccine for polio, he had to fail 200 times. When he was asked how he felt about those 200 failures, Salk said, “I never failed two hundred times in my life. I was taught not to use the word ‘failure.’ I just discovered two hundred ways how not to vaccinate for polio.”

Just think about that for a minute. 200 times. What if he had given up after that 200^th attempt? Or even the 20^th attempt? Polio was a deadly disease that afflicted thousands prior to the discovery of the vaccine. The disease claimed the life of 3,000 people in 1952 alone. Thank God, Salk didn’t quit early. Today, polio is almost completely eradicated across the world. Salk had to think of his failures in a way most people don’t in order to move forward to success.

In the Gospel of John, we read about another man with a series of failures. Peter grievously sinned by denying he even knew Jesus three times. But the truly amazing thing is how Jesus responded to Peter’s failures. Jesus didn’t abandon Peter or discard him as no longer useful to him. In fact, He gave Peter a position of extraordinary prominence in His newly launched church. 

This is an important reminder. When you have a God of infinite grace, failure can become a steppingstone to true success. It’s an opportunity for growth, if you’re willing to receive God’s grace. Every time you honestly confess your sin to God, think of it as taking one more step toward becoming the person He wants you to be.

“If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” (1 John 1:9, ESV)

Most Christians will readily agree that confession leads to forgiveness, but do we really believe that Jesus cleanses us from all unrighteousness? 

There is tremendous freedom in bringing our failures into the light of God’s presence. He is a God who graciously forgives, but like a good father, He calls us to confess where we’ve gone wrong.

If I snap at my wife Whitney in the morning and then later that evening come home and say, “Hey, honey, what’s for dinner?” There’s still going to be a rift between us. Before our relationship can be restored to what it should be, I have to go through the painful experience of saying, “I was wrong for how I snapped at you earlier. Will you forgive me?” That’s how it always goes with relationships. 

We might assume Peter’s leadership career was over after that failure in the temple courts, but Jesus fully restored Peter. Think about that. It’s hard to imagine something more grievous than denying his Lord three times, but Jesus restored Peter and chose him to be the guy to first proclaim the gospel of grace in Jerusalem.

The same kind of thing could be said of Paul. He had a record of persecuting Christians and blaspheming Jesus, yet God used him to first take the gospel to the Gentile world. Paul even says that God chose people like him because they would showcase His grace and the fact that His cross and resurrection set us free from our past and restore us to our true calling (see 1 Timothy 1:16).

This is what makes Christianity so amazing! Because of the gospel, past failure doesn’t disqualify us from the calling God has on our lives.

While it’s important to confess sin to the Lord, it’s equally important to see that the Lord can grow you through your failures. Never give in to the lie that God is done using you because of something in your past. Maybe you’re holding onto something you need to surrender to Him.

So many Christians feel defeated by past failures and feel they can never move on and move forward in their walk with the Lord. If that’s you, please know that is not a word from God. That’s not Jesus telling you you’re disqualified. That’s the devil.

Revelation 12:10 calls the devil “the Accuser of our brothers and sisters, who accused them day and night before God.” This is one of Satan’s tactics. He will urge us to quit when we’ve blown it. Or tell us we’ve tried God’s patience too many times. Watch out for the critics you face in life. The more you say “Yes” to God’s calling on your life, the more critics will attack you.

But every time you stumble and fall, don’t let Satan sideline you.  By God’s grace, see it as another opportunity to rise again in the power of the Lord and get back in the fight.

Theodore Roosevelt said:

“It’s not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena… who, at best, knows in the end the triumph of great achievement, and who, at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly. So that his place will never be with those cold timid souls who know neither victory or defeat.”

If you feel like you’ve failed Jesus too many times, see John 21:15-19 as an invitation to sit down by the fire with Jesus. Hear Him asking you, “Do you love Me?” 

And if the answer is “Yes,” then there’s always hope. And that love can drive you to keep following after Him.

Have thoughts on this post? I’d love to hear from you!