The most common reason why people feel they have lost their purpose in life is because they have made a mess of themselves and failed to live up to the expectations of their family and other people close to them. But Jesus constantly reminds us that He has taken all our mistakes and failures so that we can continue to pursue God's calling in our lives.
Failure can be a crippling feeling. It is mainly because of the hurt of failure and the fear of more subsequent failures that we are tempted sometimes to throw in the towel.
But the reality we must all face today is that all people, Christians included, have encountered failures and will continue doing so. Romans 3:23 reminds us that we have all fallen short at some point, but God never meant for believers to be quitters.
John 21:15 sheds light on this point as it describes the conversation between Peter and Jesus after the disciple denied His Lord three times before He was put to death.
When they had eaten breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, "Simon, son of Jonah, do you love Me more than these?"
He said to Him, "Yes, Lord; You know that I love You."
He said to him, "Feed My lambs."
In this conversation, notice how Jesus didn't say, "Oh, Peter remember those three times that you denied that you knew me before the rooster crowed? I knew it, and I told you so."
Instead Jesus focused on two things: First, He focused on His relationship with Peter by asking about love, not performance. Second, Jesus looked not into the past, but into the future instead as he assigned Peter a task to fulfil—"feed My lambs."
When we fail, some of us must have felt the fear of Jesus coming and telling us, "I told you so."
But we can be assured that this will never happen. Hebrews 8:12 says, "For I will be merciful toward their iniquities, and I will remember their sins no more."
Jesus is in no business of condemning or coercing people, but is in serious business of restoring us back into our identity and into our God-given destiny.
God may remind you from time to time that you may have done some things wrong and failed along the way, but Jesus is restoring your relationship with Him once more. He is calling you back not as defeated servants but as sons and daughters forgiven and redeemed.
And after that, He sends you out once more with all confidence and trust in you, commanding you to feed His lambs. It's not over for you just because you made a mistake. It's a new beginning for you because God has made you brand new.
