Friday, February 22, 2013
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Somewhere on your body there is probably some mark or scar from your early days of riding a bicycle. Most of us took a pretty good spill somewhere along the way and we've got the marks to prove it. Well, our family was staying at a little cabin in the woods, and our oldest son came cruising down this little dirt path on his bike. He spun out on the gravel and he had an unscheduled meeting with the ground. When he got up he was bleeding pretty profusely from his mouth.
So we rushed him to the local emergency room. They cleaned up the mess and found that he had a broken tooth. When they had done all that they could and he was sort of back together again, we came back to our cabin.
Guess what was the first thing I had my son do? Uh-huh. Get back on that bike and ride. He was a little reluctant, but he did it. See, I didn't want the fear of failure and the fear of riding to have a chance to build up inside of him. I knew it was important to get right back on after a fall or he may not get back at all.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "How to Recover From a Fall."
Our word for today from the Word of God comes from Proverbs 24:16, "For though a righteous man falls seven times, he rises again." Do you notice what this verse does not say? It doesn't say a righteous man does not fall. It says, "…though he falls, even seven times, he rises again."
Now, it was important for our son to return to his bicycle ride that day and to do it right away. I didn't want him to dwell on the fall. Can't you just imagine him lying there saying, "I fell! That's it! I'll probably always fall. I wasn't cut out for bicycle riding. I give up!" No, "Get right up. Get back on." That's exactly what God wants us to do after a fall.
I know you've experienced it; I have. That voice that nags you after you've messed up spiritually, "You're never going to beat this. Look what you did! Hey, you might as well stay down. You call yourself a Christian?" That's not God. That's the Devil, trying to turn one defeat into many. Like somebody who goes off their diet. Okay, you goof up one time, "Might as well eat everything in sight!" No, the Devil wants to take that one defeat and make it into many. Your job is to contain the damage the same way my son bounced back after that fall.
First, you clean up the damage, you confess it completely, you repent of it completely and specifically. You appropriate God's power to not do it again, and you might take a look at the gravel that made you fall in the first place, and you don't ride on that gravel again. It's important to burn the bridges to the sin that you've committed; to the sin that brought you down; to make yourself accountable to be on the line to change.
Secondly, you return immediately to the ride that you were on originally. You accept God's promise. You know what He says? "Your sins I will remember no more." Don't let a fall affect more than that day. Don't stay down!
The only ones who never fall are those who aren't trying to ride. By God's grace you will ride more carefully this time because you fell, and you probably won't fall that way again. But when you hit the ground with a spiritual fall, get right up. Oh, and claim the promise of the book of Jude that "He is able to keep you from falling."