Now the message that we have heard from his Son and announce is this; God is light, and there is no darkness at all in him. If, then, we say that we have fellowship with him, yet at the same time live in the darkness, we are lying both in our words and in our actions. But if we live in the light – just as he is in the light – then we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from every sin.

If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and there is no truth in us. But if we confess our sins to God, he will keep his promise and do what is right; he will forgive us our sins and purify us from all our wrongdoing. If we say that we have not sinned, we make a liar out of God, and his word is not in us.

I am writing this to you, my children, so that you will not sin; but if anyone does sin, we have someone who pleads with the Father on our behalf – Jesus Christ, the righteous one. And Christ himself is the means by which our sins are forgiven, and not our sins only, but also the sins of everyone.

1 John 1:5-2:2

When we fail, as we all do, we should learn to fail intelligently. Inventor Charles Kettering suggests that once we have failed, we should analyze the problem and find out why, because each failure is one more step leading up to the cathedral of success. The only time you don’t want to fail is the last time you try. Kettering suggested the following for turning failure into success: Honestly face defeat and never fake success; Exploit your failure and don’t waste it, learn all you can from it; and Never use failure as an excuse for not trying again. Knowing how to benefit from failure is the key to continued growth in grace. We have to confess our sins –it is the first step in turning our failure into success.

Failure is never final for those who begin again in God.

Our Daily Bread – April 3, 2003