by David Brenneman
“Do not rejoice over me, O my enemy. Though I fall I will rise; Though I dwell in darkness, the Lord is a light for me.” Micah 7:8.
“When he falls, he will not be hurled headlong, Because the Lord is the One who holds his hand.” Psalms 37:24.
“The Lord sustains all who fall And raises up all who are bowed down.”
Psalms 145:14.
“If I should say, “My foot has slipped,” Your lovingkindness, O Lord, will hold me up.” Psalms 94:18.
“Do not fear, for I am with you; Do not anxiously look about you, for I am your God. I will strengthen you, surely I will help you, Surely I will uphold you with My righteous right hand." Isaiah 41:10.
You're going to stumble. You're going to fall. You're going to think for a split second that what you see in others won't happen in you or to you. Oh the folly of the sin nature.
You're going to trip, you're going to go down. The promise of Jesus is that you don't need to stay there. A cry to Him and He will help you back up onto your feet. Confess, ask forgiveness, move on, as He does when we do. Get back on the path He's set before you.
My Dear Reader, we're not perfect, although we strive for perfection. We're not going to get it right every time because of the sin-cursed world we live in. We're not going to get it right because of the sin nature we were born with. We need daily cleansing from the sins of the day.
The promise from Jesus is to help us get back on our feet again, cleansing us from all unrighteousness.
The thing for us to do is not to ignore, not to dismiss, not call what we've done 'mistakes'. Not to treat what we say we 'love' which isn't helping us to grow spiritually as acceptable.
Satan cannot cancel us from Heaven's gates. He cannot prevent us from going to Jesus by his 'power'. He can, however, get us to believe we're in such a state that Jesus would not want to hear from us because of the dirt we have on ourselves. To not believe that He would ever cleanse such filth from us as is His promise to do when we confess---that is to agree with Him--and ask for forgiveness.
“For we all stumble in many ways. If anyone does not stumble in what he says, he is a perfect man, able to bridle the whole body as well.” James 3:2.
Take a step back and look at just yesterday in your life. What thoughts did you entertain that weren't God honoring? What words did you speak that were not God honoring? What behaviors did you display that were not God honoring? What were you doing that you, if you truly believed Jesus was standing there, would not have been engaged in?
So you see...you do stumble. You do fall down. But unless you ask for forgiveness, unless you agree with Jesus that what those things were were indeed sins, the dirt remains.
By no means have I arrived at being able to bridle my tongue. Nor have I gotten to the point of my life where I've let go of sins that easily entangle. Satan's been around me my entire life and knows exactly how to push my buttons...when he's been permitted to do so.
Scripture calls him the accuser of the brethren.
What you also need to remember is he is nothing more than a fallen angel. He is not omnipotent, nor omnipresent. He cannot be everywhere at once nor can he know all things. My belief is that not only do we have Guardian Angels...we likely have a demon who's there trying to make life as rough as is permitted for us. Too many cliche's out there try to blame Satan for this that or the other when it's either just our sin nature, or something that was allowed to occur in our lives.
My Dear reader...Isaiah 41:10...we have this promise, we have an Advocate, as the Scriptures have promised.
What's really on us to be doing is more agreeing with the Scriptures, more accepting of what they have to say about living the Christian life, more accountability to righteous living, than we have or do in this moment.
There's no joking, quite truthfully, about things that we 'love'. There's nothing in the Scriptures about exceptions concerning sinful thoughts, actions or any such thing.
What are thoughts you've entertained about things of this world that conflict with your love for Jesus and your obedience to what you're here for?
What actions do you willingly participate in that you shouldn't be that are really, Bibilically, idol worship?
Christian's shouldn't be joining the 'rage craze' of others about 'things'.
Christian's shouldn't be accepting of any form of sins in their lives that the Bible says ARE sins.
Christian's shouldn't be calling sins 'mistakes'. Jesus didn't die for the mistakes of people, He died for their sins.
Scripture says to 'consider your ways'. Are you?
Are you removing the things that drive thoughts away from God's word in your life?
Someone once said, and appropriately so, that all it takes for evil to succeed is for good men to do nothing.
All it takes for sin to succeed in your life is for you to do nothing about it.
All it takes for sin to have it's way with you is for you to make an excuse to embrace it.
All it takes is for you to dismiss the consequences of sin in your life because you won't call it what God calls it.
So, my Dear Reader...recogize your position. Are you still down from stumbling? Get back up.
Are you still allowing thoughts that a Believer in Jesus Christ ought not to be entertaining? Call on His Name to get rid of them. Have you set up idols in your life...remove them...destroy them.
You and I have an appointed day to stand before Jesus to give an account of our lives.
"I didn't know" won't be an acceptable excuse.
"I didn't think..." won't be an acceptable excuse.
"I wasn't serious about..." won't be an acceptable excuse.
"It wasn't like that..." won't work with the One who is the Truth.
We shouldn't accept stumbling and falling down as our new posture in Christ.
Pray what David did...to renew a right spirit within you. To see if there be any wicked, hurtful, way in you and to help you to remove it...destroy it even. To seek first His Kingdom and His righteousness.
Get back up again...and let's get moving and get back in the race set before us.
All NASB Scripture Excerpts used by permission.
New American Standard Bible
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