We sometimes hope we can run away from past failure instead of facing up to it so that we can move forward. Failure in some form or another is common to us all. “We all stumble in many ways” (James 3:2). We all have done things we regret.

But how should we respond to failure? Do we let it run our life and define us? Do we run away from it and try to avoid it? Or do we determine to own up to our failure so that we can learn from it and move on?

A lot could be said about the rise and fall of King Saul found in the biblical book of 1 Samuel. It’s a cautionary tale—one that we all should heed. It reveals the danger of failing to obey the Lord’s voice.

God wants us to learn to be overcomers, not be overcome by failure. He wants us to face our mistakes squarely, admit where we have gone wrong, and then receive the grace of the Lord Jesus so that we can press on.

Walter and the Mouse

There once was a boy named Walter. Walter was the kind of kid who was always getting himself into trouble. He thought of himself as a little artist, and he was once caught painting pictures with black tar on the side of his family’s white house. When it didn’t come out, his parents were furious with him. Walter was your typical class clown. He fell behind in his studies, and his teachers often had to scold him for pulling class pranks. In one prank, Walter even caught a field mouse and brought into class with a string tied around its neck as if it were a dog on a leash.

As he grew older, Walter tried many different things—including live comedy. But he was so bad that he once got booed off the stage. Many viewed him as a failure who would never amount to much. And yet, eventually his name would be familiar in every American household after a different mouse made him famous. Today you know him as Walt Disney. Disney is a classic example of someone who didn’t let failure defeat him. He considered his past failures and was determined to learn from them.

When we face our failures, we can learn and grow. But if we ignore them or try to run from them, they will continue to trail us.

The Ideal King

In the early days of Israel, the people wanted a king like all the other nations around them. So, God gave them a king named Saul. By all appearances, Saul was everything the people would want in a king. Saul was “as handsome a young man as could be found anywhere in Israel, and he was a head taller than anyone else” (1 Samuel 9:2, NIV).

In modern parlance, we would say Saul looked the part. Not only was he tall and handsome, but he was also a natural leader in many ways. He led Israel to victory in numerous military battles. Under his reign, Israel grew more powerful. Saul was the ideal king…or so it seemed.

As I’ve studied Saul’s life, I think it’s possible that because he was given so much success so quickly, he began to credit himself for all those victories. Rather than cultivating a deeper relationship with the Lord, Saul began to act for personal glory and recognition.

In 1 Samuel 13, we see that Samuel had specifically told Saul to wait for him to arrive on the seventh day after a battle with the Philistines, and then Samuel would offer up a burnt offering to God. But soon after the battle, the Philistines regrouped, and a massive army began to surround the Israelite camp. As the days wore on, fear began to settle on the Israelite soldiers.

In fact, fear began to take hold of Saul, and he watched one squad after another start to take off and hide in wells and tombs. So what did Saul do? Instead of speaking up and assuring the people that God was in control and that Samuel would arrive soon, Saul decided to offer up the burnt offering himself.

Just as he finished making the offering, Samuel arrived, and Saul went out to greet him. “What have you done?” asked Samuel. Saul replied, “When I saw that the men were scattering, and that you did not come at the set time, and that the Philistines were assembling at Mikmash, I thought, ‘Now the Philistines will come down against me at Gilgal, and I have not sought the Lord’s favor.’ So I felt compelled to offer the burnt offering.” (1 Samuel 13:10-12, NIV)

Here we see first the roots of failure.

The Roots of Failure

1) Human frailty

When things go wrong, it’s easy for panic to set in. The people considered the greatness of the Philistine army and scattered. Rather than show strength in God, Saul acted in weakness.

2) Impulsive action

How many lives have been lost to impulsivity? Wisdom teaches us to think things through before acting. Rather than seek the Lord’s counsel or wait for Samuel to come, Saul went ahead with offering the sacrifice that only Samuel was to offer.

3) Fearing men rather than God

This is the big one. Saul let his fear of men win the day. Offering a sacrifice may have looked like a very godly thing to do, but the reality was that he was disobeying God. He feared the people more than he feared God.

When Samuel shows up, he reprimands Saul for his foolish action.

Interestingly, these three roots of failure continued to haunt Saul’s steps. Soon after this, his men were tired and hungry, yet he impulsively put a ban on all eating until the battle had been won. Such a move was unwarranted and only worked against his men having the energy they needed.  Saul was even about to execute his own son for unknowingly breaking this order.

Things only got worse for Saul. In 1 Samuel 15, he is told to execute the wicked King Agag of the Amalekites and destroy all the livestock that has been used in their pagan worship.

But what did Saul do? He thought he had a better idea than God. He knew the people wanted to keep the best of the livestock so he allowed them to spare them rather than following God’s clear commands. Time after time, Saul fails in the same way by fearing men rather than God. Because he never dealt with his failures, they returned again and again in Saul’s life.

Sometimes, our boys will chase each other, and oftentimes the one being chased suddenly is terrified by the thought of being pursued. When they are upset, Whitney reminds them, “He can’t chase you if you stop running.” It’s the same with failure.

It is only those who face their failures that are truly able to walk away from them. Those who run from them or avoid dealing with them will continue to be plagued by them.

So, how should we respond to failure?

The Response to Failure

1) Learn from your failures.

Saul’s most egregious sin was his failure to heed God’s voice. But he fell in the same way repeatedly because he never learned from his failures. He never stopped to review where he had gone wrong

It may sound counterintuitive, but failure is often the doorway to great success.

Jonas Salk failed two hundred times before he discovered the vaccine for polio. 200 failures straight! And yet, in his own words, he merely found 200 ways to not discover polio. When he finally got it right, it was worth every failure. But what if Salk had called it quits on that 200^th failure? Who knows—Polio might still pose a very real threat to us today!

God’s counsel to us is this: “Don’t waste your failures!” They serve a purpose, and we need to learn from them rather than let them drag us down.

Most of us probably failed 100 times before we learned to walk. Failure is something we need to push through before we find the success God has in store for us. It’s how He molds our character and makes us more like Christ.

2) Grow through your failures.

Saul stubbornly ignored past failings and refused to grow through them. Rather than stop to consider a better way, Saul’s heart hardened, and he bristled at the thought that he made a mistake.

“Then the word of the Lord came to Samuel: “I regret that I have made Saul king, because he has turned away from me and has not carried out my instructions.” Samuel was angry, and he cried out to the Lord all that night.” (1 Samuel 15:10-11, NIV)

When we don’t grow through our failures, we harm others, too. It’s because Saul refused to learn from his failures that he went completely off the rails. It’s as though the GPS of God’s Word kept telling him to make a U-Turn, but he stubbornly refused to make any course corrections.

When Samuel confronts Saul, we find out just how arrogant he’d become. He was so proud of his accomplishments that “he set up a monument for himself” (v. 12). Not only that, but he’s convinced himself that he’s done the right thing.

When Samuel reached him, Saul said, “The Lord bless you! I have carried out the Lord’s instructions.” But Samuel said, “What then is this bleating of sheep in my ears? What is this lowing of cattle that I hear?” (1 Samuel 15:13-14, NIV)

Think of how ridiculous this is. God had commanded Saul to destroy all the livestock, and he claims to have done everything he was told. And Samuel says, “Oh, really? Well, then why are we surrounded by herds of sheep and cattle?”

Saul hadn’t grown at all since his past failures. When we don’t learn from past failure, we tend to rationalize our behavior, convincing ourselves that we are on the right track. Saul’s rationalization cost him dearly. Instead of being the first in a long line of kingly successions, Saul would be the dead end, and his kingdom would be taken away.

We need to grow through our failures. The problem with so many people is that they go to one of two extremes when it comes to failure. Some refuse to ever face their failures and deal with them, so they continue down a dark path to destruction as Saul did. Others focus so much on their failure that they let their failure define them. Their failure becomes their identity; they think, “I am a failure.” But let’s be clear: Failure is not something you are; it’s something you do. It’s not your identity; it’s merely a fact of life.

If you have trusted in Christ, God doesn’t see you as a failure. He sees you as His precious child. He doesn’t define you according to your countless failures; He defines you by your relationship to Him, as His adopted son or daughter.

3) Remember that God understands.

We will never grow from past failures, until we learn the importance of confession. And confession is very simple: it means agreeing with God about where you’ve gone wrong. We come clean to God when we remember that He is a merciful and gracious God.

“As a father has compassion on his children, so the Lord has compassion on those who fear him; for he knows how we are formed, he remembers that we are dust.” (Psalm 103:13-14, NIV)

Sometimes we fail in life not because of sin, but simply because of human frailty. And God understands that. He’s not looking for a reason to scold us. He knows we are dust. So, remember that failure does not hold the final verdict on your life.

“But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us.” (2 Corinthians 4:7, NIV)

It’s often in response to failure that we see God’s power shining all the brighter. When a church has made the gospel of Christ central, it will have grace and forgiveness flowing freely. People won’t be beaten down for making mistakes. Instead, God will use others to encourage those have stumbled and help lift them up.

I remember seeing one Paralympics women’s running event where a contestant stumbled and fell to the ground. The crowd let out a collective gasp when she went down. But then something amazing happened. The other contestants looked back and upon seeing their fallen competitor, immediately stopped in their tracks and, without prompting, helped her to her feet. They cared more about finishing the race together than leaving someone behind.

When others fail, it’s a chance for us to express the mercy of God.

4) Receive God’s forgiveness.

When we own up to our sins and mistakes, we can experience the fullness of God’s grace.

“For as high as the heavens are above the earth,
    so great is his love for those who fear him;
as far as the east is from the west,
    so far has he removed our transgressions from us.” (Psalm 103:11-12, NIV)

God wants us to know what it means to have our failures and sins removed from us. He calls us to look to the cross of Christ, where Christ paid for all our failings and transgressions. He did that so that we don’t have to fear failure. We can face it courageously, knowing that it no longer controls us. We are fully accepted by God because of Christ.

5) Believe that better days are ahead.

Just because you failed God or others in some way, that doesn’t mean God is done using you. Although Saul never actually rose from failure, we have many examples in Scripture of those who failed God in a big way but were still used by God in an even bigger way.

For example, God told Jonah to go into the wicked city of Nineveh and proclaim to Israel’s enemies the amazing truth of God’s grace and forgiveness. Well, Jonah didn’t want to do that, so he went in the opposite direction by trying to sail across the Mediterranean Sea. Eventually, he was swallowed by a great fish and brought back to shore when the fish spat him up.

So what did God do? Consign this sailor to swabbing the deck for the rest of his life? No. God still used him in what ended up being the greatest revival recorded in Scripture.

God can use our failures for good. That doesn’t mean failures themselves are good, but it shows us that we don’t have to let the rainy cloud of discouragement follow us the rest of our days. We can rise from our failures and let God use them for good (Romans 8:28). Aim to have your last chapter better than your first. Better days are ahead.

Are you prone to let your failures define you? How does it affect you to know that in Christ God doesn’t view you as a failure?

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