Don't Waste Your Failure

Recently a friend introduced me to “Don’t Waste Your Cancer,” written by John Piper on the eve of his prostate surgery. Many, but not all of us have battled cancer. None of us have escaped failure.

The trick is not to waste the failure, but gain by it.

1. I will waste my failure if I hide it.

“If we walk in the Light, as He Himself is in the Light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of His Son Jesus cleanses us from all sin”

(1 John 1:7).

2. I will waste my failure if deny it.

“If we say we have no sin, we are deceiving ourselves and the truth is not in us” (1 John 1:8).

3. I will waste my failure if I attack those who disagree with me.

“Do not speak against one another, brethren. He who speaks against a brother or judges a brother, speaks against the law and judges the law; but if you judge the law, you are not a doer of the law but a judge of it” (James 4:11).

4. I will waste my failure if I refuse to discover its root.

“Test me, LORD, and try me, examine my heart and my mind” (Psalm 26:2).

5. I will waste my failure if I vow to try harder rather than believe God.

“Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight (Proverbs 3:5-6).

6. I will waste my failure if I wallow in self-pity.

“Though the fig tree does not bud and there are no grapes on the vines, though the olive crop fails and the fields produce no food, though there are no sheep in the pen and no cattle in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the LORD, I will be joyful in God my Savior” (Habakkuk 3:17-18).

7. I will waste my failure if I allow it to define me.

“How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are!” (1 John 3:1).

8. I will waste my failure if I quit.

“Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up” (Galatians 6:9).

9. I will waste my failure if I do not seek wise counsel.

“Plans fail for lack of counsel, but with many advisers they succeed”

(Proverbs 15:22).

10. I will waste my failure if I do not allow it to drive me to Jesus.

“If you keep my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commands and remain in his love” (John 15:10).

11. I will waste my failure if I refuse to glorify Christ through it.

“But he said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.’ Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me” (2 Corinthians 12:9).