Joshua 7:6
And Joshua rent his clothes, and fell to the earth upon his face before the ark of the LORD until the eventide, he and the elders of Israel, and put dust upon their heads.
Everything Joshua touched since he became Israel’s leader seemed to turn to gold. He had yet to experience one failure as a leader. When he became the leader, Israel quickly got behind his leadership. When he faced the Jordan River, he saw a great victory when God parted it so they could go to the other side. When he faced the walls of Jericho, God showed His mighty power through his leadership by allowing the great walls to fall. Everything Joshua faced to this point showed his great leadership. However, the battle of Ai was his first failure, but to Joshua’s credit, it did not make him quit. He corrected the mistakes and went on to see continued victories from that point forward. Let me share several observations about facing your first failure.
First, you need failure to keep you humble. If we never had failure, we would become very prideful in our own abilities. Failure is the reset button of our confidence that turns us from placing our confidence in ourselves to placing our confidence in God. Failure has a way of getting us to look at ourselves and our abilities in a much different light.
Second, you need failure because you need God. Failure should make you run to God for help. God must allow you to fail so you will go to Him as you used to do when you were small. Failure makes you realize how much you need God to help you in every aspect of your life and endeavors. The humbling of failure should turn you to God.
Third, failure does not make you a failed leader. What you do with your first hardship or failure will determine how far God can take you. You are not the first leader who has faced failure. Many leaders faced failure and went on to be great leaders afterward. Failure defines you, dependent on whether you stay down and quit, or if you get up from failure to go on and do something great for God. Failure is the defining action that separates the quitter from the overcomer. Failure is humiliating, but it does not make you a failure if you choose to get up and keep going after failure.
Fourth, get back up from failure and try again. The greatest action you can take from failure is to get up. Never focus on the failure, but focus on the getting up and trying again. The greatest of people in history got up from failure and went on to see great success. Failure defines your character, and it shows what you have in you when you face hardships. Let your character be known as one who never lets failure to keep you down.
Fifth, let failure be a cleansing time. Failure is a great way to get rid of the things that are hindering you from finding success. Failure reveals your weaknesses or sins to you, and it should cause you to get rid of those things that caused the failure. To continue to do what caused you to fail only results in continued failure; change the action that caused the failure, and you will turn failure into success.
Sixth, keep doing what you have done before failure to get you through failure. Don't turn from the old paths just because you failed. Keep walking the old paths because they are not the cause of failure. Keep doing what you are supposed to do while you face seeming failure, and your continued actions of right will eventually take you to success.