Get Back Up

When people fall down, don’t they get back up again? – Jeremiah 8:4

It is fairly easy to train animals against a specific behavior by applying some sort of negative response to that behavior. The dog jumps on the couch, you yell at it to get off – maybe a gentle spanking for the more stubborn ones. Generally speaking, after a few iterations, the dog learns the behavior and it is not repeated. For kids though, it does not seem to matter how many times and what form of punishment it is, they go right back to doing the bad things again (can I get an Amen?). Has anyone had to send their kid to time-out only a few times for not sharing? People are persistent. This can be a good thing, too. And God knows it.

We mess up all the time, do we not? It seems that we all have these stumbling blocks in the path before us that our eyes do not see or that we refuse to look at which trip us up over and over again. But that does not mean that we should stay lying on the path. We get back up. Here is the thing to keep in mind though: it does not matter which direction you are going on the path – you can stumble walking in either direction.

When we are headed away from God, we stumble. At some point, we will realize the path we are on is not getting us closer to Him and we will turn around. But don’t you know those same stumbling blocks are still there on the path? Stumbling blocks are not an indication that we are on the wrong path, but they should remind us to verify which direction we are going. When we fall down, we get back up again. We are not going to get any closer to God lying down on the path.

God, thank You for creating us to persevere and persist through our trials. Thank You for giving us the strength to get back up when we fall. Let Your Spirit guide us so we can be sure we are on the path headed in the right direction. Amen.