WEDNESDAY WEEKLY WORD ...is it a wonderful life?

One of my favorite Christmas movies is It's a Wonderful Life. A story about a man who hates his life and hates his daily failures. George looks back on his life, but all that he sees is his failure. Failure at being successful, his failure of being a good husband, and even his failure of being a good provider for his family. But then an angel gives George a chance to see life without his "failures."

Instead of seeing his failures, he sees a life without his successes.

At the end of the movie, George realizes he had made some great impacts in people's life's. And with each life that he touched, the love and encouragement just spread like wildfire, from one to another, like ripples in the water.  Even though he saw himself a failure, his friends and family saw him as a success!

 

Isn't that like us to focus on our failures instead of our successes? All of us think we have failed at something, and most of us have failed at something. But instead of focusing on the bad, why not set our eyes on the good?

 

In last week's YOUR OPINION MATTERS POLL, I polled the readers to finish the following sentence, "Sometimes I feel like I have failed..." The top 3 responses were:

 

1. 66% of those voting said they feel like they have failed God!

2. 44% voted and said they feel like they have failed their children!

3. 33% responded and said they feel like they have failed themselves!

 

These are all some pretty major failures that we feel. The pressure of doing good, being accepted and striving for excellence is great! But when it is all said and done, when we fail the ones that we love, there is still one thing left...

 

LOVE! George discovered this one thing and we must see it as well....love never fails!

 

1 Corinthians 13:8 "Love never fails."

Love that comes from God is unending and unstoppable. This love is extended to us not only in our successes in life but also in our failures. His love will never fail us, it will never let us down, it will never cease. There is no "up"or "down" in your life that will change the Word of God. It is unchangeable, there is nothing that can happen that will stamp an expiration date on God or His love for us. His love never fails.

 

Our love for one another also has this same substance. Loving others is unconditional. It is not dependent upon if someone lets you down or fails you. Peter denied Jesus 3 times, even after he swore he would NEVER deny Him. (Matthew 26:33-35) Even though Peter failed Him, Jesus never stopped loving him.

 

You will fail. You will fail others and others will fail you. But in the end...love will oversee the failures, because love never fails...it is truly a WONDERFUL life when we realize that love cannot fail!