Lent Day 8: "Never again!"

"Never again: It is a wise person who can learn as much from failure as success. A Never Again folder on your computer might help you be more productive in the future."

This post caught my eye - what if we weren't doomed to repeat our mistakes? What if we actually learned from failure and could move on? What would I leave behind? These, for sure:
* saying an unkind word in the heat of the moment
* letting stuff that belongs elsewhere collect in my office
* telling private things to someone who has just told me another person's secret
* eating chocolate late at night

Okay, so I'm not going to tell you the rest of my list. It's apparent that we have patterns of failure if we are put in harm's way, and also fall down when we compromise our integrity.

Grace is wonderful. When we call on him, God picks us up, dusts us off, pours his sufficiency over us... and gives us a choice - repeat failure, or move on to do what is right.

Do we know God well enough to let him effect the changes we need to make? Are we immersing ourselves in scripture, rather than reading a verse here or there for 'devotions?' Are we spending time in prayer and other spiritual disciplines to put ourselves under the Spirit's guidance?

If we cooperate, we learn from our mistakes. On the other hand, it's scary to think that if we resist wisdom, most of our life may end in the "Never again!" file.

Read more:
*Those who sow in tears will reap with songs of joy. He who goes out weeping, carrying seed to sow, will return with songs of joy, carrying sheaves with him. Psalm 126:5-6 NIV

*Now all has been heard; here is the conclusion of the matter: Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man. For God will bring every deed into judgment, including every hidden thing, whether it is good or evil. Ecclesiastes 12:13-14 NIV

*There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death.

For what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh, God did by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, on account of sin: He condemned sin in the flesh, that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. Romans 8:1-4 NKJV