JCSM's Weekly Devotions (click here to listen!)

"Turn Failure Into Success"

Acts 3:19  "Repent therefore and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, so that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord."

Acts 13:20-22  "After that He gave them judges for about four hundred and fifty years, until Samuel the prophet.  And afterward they asked for a king; so God gave them Saul the son of Kish, a man of the tribe of Benjamin, for forty years.  And when He had removed him, He raised up for them David as king, to whom also He gave testimony and said, ‘I have found David the son of Jesse, a man after My own heart, who will do all My will.'"

2 Corinthians 12:10  "Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in needs, in persecutions, in distresses, for Christ’s sake.  For when I am weak, then I am strong."

James 5:16  "Confess your trespasses to one another, and pray for one another, that you may be healed.  The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much."

Insight: God gives us the tools to turn failure into success.  We need to repent, confess, and do things right the next time.  Christians should be learning from their failures, so they can be successful and obedient citizens for Christ.

Prayer: "Dear Lord, thank you for helping us and making us like You.  Forgive our sins.  Bless us and lift us up.  Thank you for giving us your words and your laws.  Thank you for giving us your Holy Spirit, too.  Help us to know what You want and to be sensitive to your will and prompting.  We will obey You and either get it right the first time or repent and get it right the second time.  In Jesus' name, Amen."

On February 10th, 1996, history was made during a game of chess. Gary Kasparov, possibly the best chess player of all time, competed with an IBM computer called deep blue and lost. The computer was programmed to evaluate 200 million different chess positions every second. In this way, it calculated every single possibility on the board within the next 10-15 moves. After losing initially, Kasparov won the following games to take the match. With his experience, pattern recognition, and intuition, Kasparov could actually see 20 moves ahead on the chessboard. The very best computers of today are still no match for the created human mind.

This excerpt was taken from Donald DeYoung's book called, "365 Fascinating Facts From the World of Discovery."

(This explanation came from "The Skeptic's Annotated Bible: Corrected and Explained", by Dr. Jason Gastrich.  This book is on CD and gives over 4,000 answers to alleged Bible errors, regarding the entire Bible at http://www.skepticsannotatedbible.org.  There is also a 300 question workbook that accompanies the CD-ROM.)

Be careful to avoid saying mean or angry things when you’re weak.

Can you see the Messiah in your life?

The world sees Christians as cosmic killjoys.

God leads us to change easy things and difficult things.

God created mathematics, but His ways aren’t subject to the math we understand.

Try to discern God’s timing.

Sometimes Christians get ahead of God’s plan.

Jesus is undefeated.

Even when we fail, we can be victorious in Christ.

Ask God to help you cope with the emotions that accompany defeat.

With the strength of Christ, we are never defeated.

God constantly seeks a closer relationship with us.

Before making a decision you care about, take time to ask the Lord about it through prayer and meditation.

God will teach you lessons from a variety of people, in a variety of places. Don’t expect Him to only work when and if you want Him to.

Christ was successful because He always had His eyes on His father.

Some of us are acting like Wimpy and saying to God, “I’ll gladly pay you Tuesday for a hamburger (a blessing) today.”

Jesus constantly calls us for intimacy with Him, but we often avoid having that time with Him.

If you live in safety, where you can worship God and proclaim your beliefs, give Him thanks for your freedom.

Some of our guilty feelings are deserved and some are not.

Christians should be working hard six days a week and resting one day.

Sometimes, God uses pain or sickness to get us to stop working so much.

Most people who reject Christianity have had a bad experience with a Christian.

We are accepted by God as we are, so we should accept others as well.

We cannot make it more difficult for people to get saved.

These quotes came from the Holy Spirit, Howard Everett, Sarine Gastrich, and Jason Gastrich.  If you'd like to read more wise quotes, you can either visit our Quotations Archive or get a copy of Dr. Gastrich's book called, "10,000 Wise Quotes and Spiritual Sayings"!  It's the largest collection of Bible-based quotations in the world.