I failed at knocking out even half of my to-do list yesterday.

I fail in relationships.

I fail to give God glory and praise for all of his good and precious gifts.

I fail to resist my cravings for chocolate.

…this list could go on and on, and this is just the “every day” failures. Many of us look back at our past and realize big ways we have failed over the years; not finishing school, permanently damaging a relationship, letting anxiety and stress overwhelm our hearts.

In a fallen world, failure is rampant. We fail according to our standards and the standards of others, but you know what’s a billion times worse? We fail massively according to God’s standards. We will never, never, ever measure up because we are endlessly sinful. Praise the Lord that we have been given grace to cover our sin!

Our failure becomes one of the most beautiful parts of the Christian life, because through God’s great and merciful grace, failure becomes irrelevant. No matter how many times you stumble, you have been covered by a great and merciful grace. Just like nothing you could ever do would measure up beyond failure, nothing that you ever do can separate you from the love of Christ (Romans 8:28).

When you realize that Christ has given you the grace of salvation, you begin to see that he controls all things and that your earthly failures seem so much more minimal. God’s love is great, and our own accomplishments are small. Truthfully, any time in life that we are successful, it is a result of the good gifts that Christ has given us; failure is simply a result of sin. However, the beauty of all of it is that he uses even our failures to work out for our good and his glory. He uses our downfall to draw us closer to him, so that we may see how desperately we need his sovereignty in our lives.

Our failures become small when we see how big our God is. He has given us daily and eternal grace to cover our failures. He is not surprised that we are sinful, mess up relationships, ruin expectations, or fail to follow through. He loves us regardless, and it’s through that love that we can see his mercy and grace to us in every moment. I’m so thankful to serve a God who does not require perfection, but only requires repentance and trust. We have been shown such a great mercy!