It is easy to get discouraged. We are all keenly aware (or should be) of how often and easily we fail, and it can be difficult to bounce back. When we sin, often for the 'nth' time, we tend toward despondency, towards listless regret; we lose our focus on God because we feel so far away from Him. It can be easy to wallow in our failure.
Failure is part of our experience. We are not glorified yet and we still carry around the corpse of the "old man", our sin nature still hangs around for the rest of our earthly years. Part of being a Christian is God chipping away at the power that nature has over us and making us more and more righteous but the process takes time and there's a lot of stuff to chip off.
In the midst of our failure though, there is hope. When we feel lost in our own darkness, when we feel that we cannot look into our Father's eyes because of the mud on our hands, we have to go back to the beginning. Jesus didn't come to die for good people, God didn't save perfect men, we are all sinners saved by grace and His love comes to us not in the light but in the darkness.
"Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ: By whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God. And not only so, but we glory in tribulations also: knowing that tribulation worketh patience; And patience, experience; and experience, hope: And hope maketh not ashamed; because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us. For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. For scarcely for a righteous man will one die: yet peradventure for a good man some would even dare to die. But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us."
(Romans 5:1-8)
We cannot lessen God's love for us by our actions, He loved us when we were at our very worst. Now as sons and daughters who have failed Him in the moment we are in a far greater position then we were before. His love has been shed abroad in our hearts and His Spirit resides in us to bring remorse yes, chastisement yes, but hope and love and mercy as well.
It may be hard, to go to Him again and repent, but repent we must. We must use that shame to strengthen our resolve, to sure up the defenses for the future. Prayer and study and faith and determination will work together to forge a far better tomorrow, and every day God is chipping away at the stone; there will be a beautiful sculpture there one day.
There is a temptation to run from God when we have failed but if we turn from God to what do we turn? We already know that there is no salvation apart from Him so it is to Him we must turn for forgiveness and renewal.
"...being confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ..."
(Philippians 1:6)
God will complete His work in us, we will find ourselves in glory one day. At the end of the age we will stand perfect, the finished work of God. In that day we will be free from the sin and temptation that has plagued our lives and we will rejoice and sing praise to God for His work. Until that day we must return to Him again and again for the renewing grace and inexhaustible mercy that only He has.
We must not give up, to mourn overly for sin is to give it greater power than it deserves. Christ's death defeated all our sin: past, present, and future. We must not let our failure loom over and above the consummate work of Christ. We fail and we will all fail again in the future, but He has never failed. God is always there, waiting to forgive, eager to reconcile, waiting for His sons and daughters to return home.
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