if you respond in the right way…

another benefit of failure GOD uses it to cultivate me. it can actually cultivate my character, can help me grow in my character. romans 5.3-4 (lb), we can rejoice when we run into problems and trials for we know that they are good for us. they develop strength of character.

it says we can rejoice. now is that your typical reaction when you’re in pain? i doubt it. when you’re at the point of failure you don’t usually rejoice. it says, we can rejoice when we run into problems and trials for we know… what do we know? it’s what we know that makes us be able to rejoice. it’s not the problems that we rejoice over, it’s what we know that we rejoice over. we rejoice over the fact that GOD uses problems to cultivate our character. failure has a way of softening our hearts. it makes us sensitive to others. it makes us less judgmental. it makes us more sympathetic.

if you had an unbroken string of successes, if you never failed in life, if everything you did turned to gold, if every game you played you won, if the career you had always succeeded, if every investment you made, made millions of dollars, you had the midas touch, do you realize how difficult you would be to live with? you would be a pompous person. you would have an ego a mile wide. you would have so much pride, so much arrogance, ego in your life you would be impossible to live with. so GOD just makes sure all of us have a little bit of failure in our lives so we’re not so arrogant. GOD says, “i can use it to cultivate you.”

failure in your life does not automatically grow character. just because you have problems doesn’t automatically mean you’ll grow character. you only grow in character if you respond in the right way.

i know a lot of people who have been through problem after problem and they’re still jerks. they’ve had crisis after crisis, failure after failure, and they’re still idiots. why? they’ve never responded in the right way. they haven’t responded in the way GOD wanted them to so GOD couldn’t use it to educate them, motivate them, and cultivate them.

just a thought from the front porch…