Failure Isn’t Final - Jesus And Peter

After breakfast Jesus asked Simon Peter, “Simon son of John, do you love me more than these?” “Yes, Lord,” Peter replied, “you know I love you.” “Then feed my lambs,” Jesus told him.

John 21:15

In 1902, the Atlantic Monthly’s poetry editor returned a stack of poems he had received with this curt rejection note: “Our magazine has no room for your vigorous verse.” The rejection note’s recipient was the great American poet Robert Frost, a four-time Pulitzer Prize winner.

Frost’s experience shows that one failure doesn’t mean the end for someone who approaches his work with passion.

Peter promised Jesus that he would never leave him nor deny him, so he must have felt like an utter failure after doing both. In a moment of cowardice, he denied even knowing Jesus Christ, not just once or twice, but three times.

We can imagine the sorrow Peter must have felt. Even after Jesus had risen from the grave as he’d promised, Peter knew that this little incident had to be resolved. He couldn’t forget his three passionate denials.

Peter didn’t realize it, but Jesus had big plans for him. He wasn’t about to let the man’s temporary failure get in the way of the incredible future he had mapped out for him. So he sought out his wayward apostle to restore him and ready him for things to come.

Three times Jesus asked Peter if he loved him, and all three times Peter reiterated his love for his Master and his awareness that Jesus knew he loved him. Then Jesus instructed Peter to put his love into action: “Feed my sheep.”

That morning, Jesus fully restored Peter’s relationship with him, and Peter became a new man with a new mission. He would no longer make promises he had no way of keeping. Under the power of the Spirit, Peter would speak, teach, and perform miracles with the kind of courage he only thought he had before.

Everyone takes a few tumbles now and then, and you won’t be an exception. Your failures don’t have to be final. God won’t give up on you when you fail, but he will use that failure to move you closer to enjoying everything he has planned for you.