“If you have made mistakes, there is always another chance for you. You may have a fresh start any moment you choose, for this thing we call ‘failure’ is not the falling down, but the staying down.”              — Mary Pickford, Canadian actress

If you have a strong, unwavering faith in the Lord, He will guide you, even in the least productive times in your life.  You are still God’s child, in times of success as well as in times of failure.  He continues to love you (and me) even through our difficult phases.  God does not hold your transgressions against you, as the world does.

Romans 8;1-3 NIV Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death. For what the law was powerless to do in that it was weakened by the sinful nature, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful man to be a sin offering. And so he condemned sin in sinful man.

He promises to give you new life, even when you have failed in your endeavors.

Isaiah 43:18-19 NIV Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the desert and streams in the wasteland.

But what must you do? You must trust God with this promise. You may not know what the future holds for you, but this is where your faith must kick into gear.

Having faith in God will keep you on the right path even in the midst of failure.

“There is no failure except in no longer trying. There is no defeat except from within, no really insurmountable barrier save our own inherent weakness of purpose.”          — Elbert Hubbard, American writer

*** Questions listed were taken from A Faithful Failure by John Stanks.

Lots of people were asking, in the hours after Tiger Woods’ admission of “transgressions,” what in the world are transgressions?  It’s not a car part or the newest sandwich at your favoriate fast food place (though dieters might think it one), but instead, a word which, if we understand, can give us real success.

King David, in the Old Testament, committed much worse ones than Tiger Woods. He lusted after one of his generals’ wives, Bathsheba, had an affair which resulted in pregnancy, then – when the general, Urriah, wouldn’t sleep with his wife Bathsheba – had him killed and married her.

When he realized that God knew just what had happened, even if he’d hidden it from everyone else, he wrote Psalm 51.  It was his true, heartfelt prayer to God. At the end of the first verse, he pleads with God, according to His tender mercies, to “blot out” his transgressions.

Transgressions are sins. But, the word carries a greater meaning – it shows the stain that sin creates.  A stain that must be blotted out, just as a blotter is used to clean up ink. (No, I’m not old enough to remember using those, but I do love history.)

Our society doesn’t think about the consequences of their actions.  Therefore, we don’t really think about transgressions.  It’s a word that shows we have stains on our hearts, on our lives, that require cleansing.  Just as Davis prayed for God to blot out his transgressions, we all need ours blotted out.

Why? because we are all sinners.  Not everyone would do what Tiger Woods did – and certainly not many people would ever act as King David did.  But, those stains upon our hearts mean that we can’t enter Heaven.  Heaven is a perfect place, where there is no pain, no suffering, no tears.  There can be no sin there.  If there was even one little bit of sin in Heaven, it could make someone suffer, and then it would not be Heaven anymore.

It’s interesting that this came out around Christmas.  Because, this is when we celebrate God’s gift to us.  He came into this world to be born of a virgin, to live a perfect life, and to take the punishment for our sins, the just for the unjust, when He died on the cross and rose from the dead.  He did blot out our transgressions.

David had faith to know that would happen someday.  I don’t know Tiger Woods’ heart, so I don’t know if he’s truly repentent – I do pray that he is.  But, this is a good reminder that each of us has transgressions in our lives.

We haven’t all committed every sin. But, we each have stains in our actions, words, or thoughts – remember, Jesus says that if we lust after someone we’ve committed adultery in our hearts. These are stains on our record that God must blot out.  Instead of an ink blotter, though, we have the only thing that can blot out our transgressions.  It is the perfect blood of our sinless Savior, Jesus Christ, which was shed for each of us.

It is only through faith in His finished work on the cross as blotting out our transgressions that we can go to Heaven. This is because only His blood can wash away the stain. It also allows us to have a relationship here with Him on Earth, so He can help us through all the problems and pitfalls of life.  God wants to have a personal relationship with each of us.