Facing failure is, sadly, an all-too-              thew gives us of our Master, and the
                common experience in the life      work He is doing in this age of grace.
                of every child of God. We face     While Matthew’s primary focus is the
                failure in ourselves, failure in   presentation of the King, there are at
                our service, failure in our rela-  least four occasions when the Lord
                tionships, and failure in others.  seems to specifically address His plans
Failure comes in many forms, and elicits a         and purposes for this church age in
wide range of emotional responses, from            which we live. He makes bold predic-
anger to sadness, discouragement to despair.       tions, outlines unstoppable purposes,
Sometimes, when blindsided by another              and provides specific promises that
reminder of failure in the work of God or in       should be a real encouragement to us
one of the servants of God, or (perhaps most       as we seek to serve Him.
devastatingly) in one’s own heart, there’s an
almost tangible temptation to just drop out of     His Work Will Not Fail
the race, step out of the firing line, and give
up in the service of God. We may not act on          The first glimpse of the Lord’s vision
it (thank God for everyone who doesn’t) but        and purpose for our age is found in
if we’re honest, we’ll admit to feeling this       Matthew 16:18: “Upon this rock I will
response of defeat.                                build my Church, and the gates of hell
                                                   shall not prevail against it.” Quite a
  When struggling recently with such               statement! Not a hint of trepidation
thoughts, I was encouraged by glimpses Mat-        or uncertainty. The Lord cast His om-