Why God Allows Failure
To Prevent Pride: Failure reminds us that victories and blessings come from God, not our own strength, keeping us humble (e.g., Peter’s denial kept him from pride after Pentecost).
To Cultivate Compassion: Repeated failure teaches us not to look down on others who fail, fostering mercy and understanding.
To Teach Dependence on God: Failure reinforces the lesson that "apart from Christ, we can do nothing" (John 15:5), breaking self-reliance.
To Remember Our Need for Grace: Forgetting past failures leads to spiritual blindness (2 Peter 1:9); remembering them keeps us grounded in God’s mercy.
Why God Allows Failure
1. To Keep Us Humble and Prevent Pride
God allows failure so that we never take credit for the victories or blessings He gives us. When God uses us in significant ways—such as granting success in ministry, victory over sin, or other spiritual achievements—there is a danger of becoming proud. This pride can be more destructive than the original sin itself. For example, overcoming anger might lead to spiritual pride, which is a far deeper pit.
Peter’s life illustrates this. Despite his powerful ministry at Pentecost (where 3,000 were saved after his short sermon), he never forgot his earlier failure—denying Jesus three times. This memory kept him humble, preventing him from taking glory for himself. Without such failures, we might become puffed up, like many in Christian history who were blessed greatly but fell into pride and self-destruction.
2. To Teach Us Mercy Toward Others Who Fail
Failure also removes our tendency to look down on others when they stumble. When we experience repeated failures ourselves, we develop compassion rather than judgment. Francis Schaeffer once wrote that noticing another’s flaws often creates a subconscious sense of superiority, damaging relationships.
God allows us to fail so that we remember our own weaknesses and extend grace to others. If we’ve been humbled by our own mistakes—like Peter, who never forgot his denial—we won’t condemn others when they fall. The more we recognize our own need for mercy, the more merciful we become.
3. To Teach Us Complete Dependence on Christ
Jesus said, "Apart from Me, you can do nothing" (John 15:5). While we may agree with this in theory, failure forces us to truly believe it. Just as a fruit-bearing branch is useless if cut from the vine, we are powerless without Christ.
God allows repeated failures to strip away our self-sufficiency. Only when we fully grasp our weakness do we rely entirely on Him. This lesson is not learned quickly—some may need to fail many times before they surrender completely to God’s strength.
4. To Remind Us of Our Need for Grace
In 2 Peter 1:9, Peter warns that forgetting our past sins leads to spiritual blindness. When we fail to remember how much we’ve been forgiven, we become harsh, legalistic, and ungrateful.
Failure keeps the memory of God’s mercy fresh in our minds. Like Peter, who recalled his denial even in his later years, we must never forget the depth of our own failures—lest we lose sight of God’s grace and grow cold toward others.
Conclusion
God does not allow failure to discourage us but to shape us. It guards us from pride, softens our hearts toward others, deepens our reliance on Christ, and keeps us mindful of grace. In His wisdom, He uses what the world calls "defeat" to produce true spiritual strength.
Why God Allows Failure
Why does God allow failure? I believe there are two primary reasons.
To Prevent Pride and Self-Glory
Firstly, God allows failure so that we never take credit for victory when He grants it, or for blessings in our ministry. When God blesses our ministry, we must not take glory for ourselves. God’s blessing is so wonderful that we can easily become proud when He uses us in ways He hasn’t used others. There’s a tendency to unconsciously compare ourselves or our ministry with others. Though we may act humble outwardly, secretly we might think, “God has blessed me more,” or “My ministry is more blessed.” This can lead to pride.
For example, sin is like a pit. If anger is a 10-foot pit, and God grants victory to pull me out, so I never get angry again, I’ve overcome my foul temper. But if I then fall into a 100-foot pit called spiritual pride, that’s not true victory. Often, someone gains victory over one sin, only to become proud, not realizing they’ve fallen into the deepest pit of all—spiritual pride.
How does God save us from this? When God blesses our ministry with wonderful results—souls saved, churches established, or prosperity in our work—it’s easy for Him to do that through anyone. But keeping a person humble amidst such blessings is difficult. Christian history is littered with examples of people who were tremendously blessed but became puffed up and destroyed themselves with spiritual pride. One major way God saves us from this pride is through repeated failure, ensuring we never forget what total failures we were.
The Example of Peter on Pentecost
Consider the day of Pentecost, as described in Acts 2. Put yourself in Peter’s place. He preached a sermon, perhaps 15 minutes long, and 3,000 people were saved—not just any people, but 3,000 hardcore Jews (Acts 2:41, “So those who received his word were baptized, and there were added that day about three thousand souls”). Imagine preaching in Israel today, and after 15 minutes, 3,000 people are converted, baptized, and filled with the Holy Spirit. Most would struggle to handle such a blessing without pride. But Peter could handle it. Why? Because six weeks earlier, he had denied the Lord three times (Luke 22:54-62). If someone congratulated Peter, saying, “What a man of God you are,” he’d respond, “I know what I did six weeks ago.” The memory of his failure kept him humble.
That failure was his salvation. God could use Peter to open the door to the Jews (Acts 2), to the Gentiles (Acts 10), and to limitless avenues of ministry because he had learned humility through failure. Unlike human systems, where repeated failure in college might lead to being written off, God’s ways are different. As Isaiah 55:8-9 says, “‘For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,’ declares the Lord. ‘As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.’”
To Prevent Condemning Others
The second reason God allows failure is so we never look down on others who fail. When God blesses us or gives us victory others lack, we may be tempted to feel superior. Just as spiritual pride from God’s blessings stinks before Him, looking down on others is equally offensive. Proverbs 24:17-18 warns, “Do not rejoice when your enemy falls, and let not your heart be glad when he stumbles, lest the Lord see it and be displeased.”
Years ago, I read a small article by Francis Schaeffer. He wrote that when I see something wrong in another person—where I’m right and they’re wrong—it tends to exalt me above them in my mind. This disrupts the relationship God expects between fellow creatures. That sense of superiority arises because I haven’t failed enough. If God had “rubbed my nose in my own muck” long enough, I’d never look down on others. Perhaps I need to fail another 10,000 times to learn this lesson.
Learning Helplessness Without Christ
How long does it take to learn? It varies. Some quickly grasp that without Christ, they can do nothing, as Jesus taught in John 15:5, “I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.” We may know this theoretically, but deep down, we’re not convinced. Jesus used the analogy of a branch: even if it produced fruit for 50 years, once cut off, it bears no more. To teach us this helplessness, God allows repeated failure.
Peter’s Reflection on Failure
Towards the end of his life, Peter wrote in 2 Peter 1:5-9 about qualities that make us fruitful. He warned, “For whoever lacks these qualities is so nearsighted that he is blind, having forgotten that he was cleansed from his former sins” (2 Peter 1:9). Peter likely reflected on his own denial of Christ. Forgetting the pit we were pulled from makes us blind and shortsighted. When we forget our failures, we become unmerciful to others, losing humility.
Conclusion
God allows failure to keep us humble and prevent us from looking down on others. These lessons ensure we remain dependent on Christ, never forgetting our weakness apart from Him. [Music]
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