failure

Failure where self is concerned in our Christian life and service, is allowed and often engineered by God in order to turn us completely from ourselves unto His Source for our life—Christ Jesus, who never fails. Rejoice, dear friend, in your need and hunger of heart, for God says, ‘Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled’ (Matt. 5:6). As we, in our abject need, consistently and lovingly look upon our Lord Jesus revealed to us in the Word, the Holy Spirit will quietly and effortlessly change the center and source of our lives from self to Christ—hence for each of us it will be, ‘Not I, but Christ.’
Miles J. Stanford
Principles of Spiritual Growth