Tuesday, November 19, 2002

Our 18-month-old grandson is rapidly becoming a bulldozer on two legs. He doesn't actually walk anywhere now - he runs everywhere. And no comments about his being like his grandfather! Of course, he didn't always get around like this. First, he only went where one of us carried him. But then the crawling started. He didn't do that for long. He graduated to walking real fast. And, like every baby who ever learned to walk, he began by taking a step or two and then falling down. I guess he could have said to himself after a couple of falls, "Oh well, I guess I wasn't cut out to walk. It's too hard. I keep falling down. I think I'll just lie here from now on." Oh, great! So he's 18 years old, his mother has to vacuum around him - and he asks his friends to "Roll into my room with me." Nope, it didn't work that way. After he went "step-boom," he got back up and went "step-step-boom." And then, "step-step-step-boom." And now I can't stop him!

I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Falling Down, But Not Staying Down."

God's children have something to learn from their own children. When you fall down, you don't stay down. You get up and start walking again. Sadly, when many of us take a spiritual fall, we quit trying to walk. We just stay down. Maybe that's where you are right now.

I love the defiant recovery cry in our word for today from the Word of God. It's in Micah 7:8 . "Do not gloat over me, my enemy! Though I have fallen, I will rise. Though I sit in darkness, the Lord will be my light." That's powerful. He acknowledges that he's fallen. But he declares that he doesn't have to stay down. And he's declaring that to his "enemy."

We know, of course, that our enemy is Satan himself who is very angry that he couldn't keep you from giving yourself to Jesus so you would be in hell forever with him. He lost that big battle. Now he's determined, though, to keep you from living for Jesus, from experiencing victory over the things that have beaten you over and over, from enjoying the peace and security of a consistent walk with Jesus. So he keeps pushing buttons, right, to get you to do things or think things or feel things that will bring you down. And, maybe it's worked.

So you're down. Are you just going to stay down and say, "Well, it's just too hard. I'll never change. I tried. I failed. What's the use?" No! No! You're not going to let the devil succeed in one of his most cynical strategies - trying to turn one defeat into many defeats. OK, you fell. But that doesn't mean you have to stay there. Satan starts pouring on the shame and saying, "Look at what you did. You might as well give it up and just keep going down." But Jesus says, "If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness." (1 John 1:9 )

Proverbs 24:16 says, "Though a righteous man falls seven times, he rises again." Notice, it doesn't say the righteous man never falls. It says when he falls, he keeps getting right back up and doing what's right. The only person who never falls down is the person who isn't trying to walk!

So when you fall down, be as defiant about getting up and walking again as a baby is. When you belong to Jesus, there is no such thing as a knockout. "Do not gloat over me, my enemy! Though I have fallen, I will rise!"