On Failure, from the chapter Purpose, in The Green Letters by Miles Stanford

"But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord" 2 Cor 3:18.  It is one thing to know what God's purpose is for our lives, and it is another to know something of the "how"  as to enter into it all right here and now.  One of God's most effective means in the process is failure. (Nicole adds Psalm 37:23-24 http://tinyurl.com/4hcemzl ) So many believers are simply frantic over the fact of failure in their lives, and they will go to all lengths in trying to hide it, ignore it, or rationalize about it. And all the time they are resisting the main instrument in the Father's hand for conforming us to the likeness of His Son!

Failure where self is concerned in our Christian life and service, is allowed and often engineered by God in order to turn us completely from ourselves unto His Source for our life - Christ Jesus, who never fails. Rejoice, dear friend, in your need and hunger of heart, for God says, "Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness:  for they shall be filled " Matt 5:6.  As we, in our abject need, consistently and lovingly look upon our Lord Jesus revealed to us in the Word, the Holy Spirit will quietly and effortlessly change the center and source of our lives from self to Christ - hence for each of us it will be, "Not I, but Christ. "

So I stumble forward, but it is forward, praise God...thank You for failure that shows me my need, that continually brings me back to my utter inability to conform myself into Your image. How arrogant to think I can, by some external or even internal desire, conform myself! If that were true, I have no need of You. I cannot do it, I cannot. So here I rest, again, asking You to do in me what I again find I cannot. Let my heart rest, let it be changed by You.