Failure, My Greatest Friend - August 9, 2026

<p><strong>Calling: Keeping, Finding, Growing</strong></p><p><strong>Failure, My Greatest Friend</strong></p><p><strong>Bobby Humes</strong></p><p><strong>Today&#39;s Scripture: 1 Samuel 4:2-3 NIV</strong></p><p> </p><p><strong>Romans 7:18-20 NIV</strong></p><p>For I know that good itself does not dwell in me, that is, in my sinful nature.  For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. For I do not do the good I want to do, but the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it.</p><p> </p><p><strong>Romans 8:20-21 NIV</strong></p><p>For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the freedom and glory of the children of God.</p><p> </p><p><strong>1 Samuel 4:2-3 NIV</strong></p><p>The Philistines deployed their forces to meet Israel, and as the battle spread, Israel was defeated by the Philistines, who killed about four thousand of them on the battlefield. When the soldiers returned to camp, the elders of Israel asked, “Why did the Lord bring defeat on us today before the Philistines? Let us bring the ark of the Lord’s covenant from Shiloh, so that he may go with us and save us from the hand of our enemies.”</p><p> </p><p><strong>Isaiah 30:9-10 NIV</strong></p><p>For these are rebellious people, deceitful children, children unwilling to listen to the Lord’s instruction. They say to the seers, “See no more visions!” and to the prophets, “Give us no more visions of what is right! Tell us pleasant things, prophesy illusions.</p><p> </p><p><strong>1) WHY DO WE RUN FROM FAILURE?</strong></p><p><strong>Genesis 3:8-10 NIV</strong></p><p>Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the Lord God among the trees of the garden. But the Lord God called to the man, “Where are you?” He answered, “I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid.”</p><p> </p><p><strong>Proverbs 15:32 NIV</strong></p><p>Those who disregard discipline despise themselves, but the one who heeds correction gains understanding.</p><p> </p><p><strong>Proverbs 12:1 NIV</strong></p><p>Whoever loves discipline loves knowledge, but whoever hates correction is stupid.</p><p> </p><p><strong>Jonah 1:1-3 NI