When I was in junior high school, I had a heart murmur. My doctor did not allow me to pay sports, so I had to watch while my friends played. I hated it. I felt like a failure, insecure and stupid. I had listened to lies. But when I gave my life fully to Christ, something changed.

When we receive Christ, we become a child of God. The scriptures tell us clearly we become a new creation (II Cor. 5:17) and that as far as the east is from the west, this is how far our sins and failures are removed from us (Ps 103:12). When something goes wrong, we often immediately revert back to the devil’s lies and condemnation. We all have seasons of disappointments and make mistakes and fail. But failing does not make us a failure; we are children of God!

Thomas Edison’s teachers told him he was too stupid to learn anything. He was told he had made 1000 failures trying to invent a light bulb. His response, “I did not fail 1000 times, the light bulb was an invention with 1000 steps.” And Henry Ford once said, “Failure provides the opportunity to begin again more intelligently.”

So do not look back. People who constantly look back run into the car in front of them. Look to the Lord and do not allow any difficult season in your life define who you are. You are a child of God, loved by your heavenly father.