Life is full of trouble. Expect it.

Job 14:1 says, “Man born of woman is of few days and full of trouble.”

Jesus said in John 16:33, “I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.”

However, all failures are not equal.

In fact some failures are the inevitable result of faithfulness (John 15:20).

Consider Jesus’ reaction to two perceived failures of the part of the disciples:

Luke 9:1-5 when Jesus sent His disciples out to preach the gospel and perform miracles. Knowing that not everyone would receive the truth about him (John 15:18), he taught the disciples how to handle positive inevitable failure. “If people do not welcome you, shake the dust off your feet when you leave their town, as a testimony against them.”

In Matthew 17:14–20 Christ’s disciples were unable to exorcise a demon from a young boy, even though Jesus had previously given them the authority to do that very thing (Matthew 10:1). Jesus addresses the reason for their failure: lack of faith.

These two events represent different kinds of failure.

In the first Jesus encouraged them to be faithful, stay the course and move forward.

In the second event, however, Jesus gave them pause for reflection on why they had failed in order to equip them for future success.