I’ve Fallen, But I Can Get Up “For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;” ~Romans 3:23~ Have you ever just walked down the street, got your shoe heel stuck in a crack and FAIL? Have you tried to get up out of the bed in the middle of the night and couldn’t get up? Have you ever been on an athletic team and you FAIL on the court or the field and couldn’t get up? Remember as a baby, when you begin to walk, you would FALL, and be too scared to get up. I am sure we all remember the medical alert commercial, when the lady says these famous words to the 911 dispatch operator, “Help, I’ve FALLEN and I Can’t Get Up…” A lot of times as Christians in our daily walk, we FALL and sometimes we feel like the lady in the commercial. But don’t be discouraged… “We’ve ALL have FALLEN, But We Can Get Up…” No matter how many times you try to trip us up, GOD-loyal people dont stay down long; soon were up on our feet, while the wicked end up flat on their faces. Victory is when we FALL and chose to get back up. “We’ve ALL have FALLEN, But We Can Get Up…” We do not like to admit that our sinfulness and rebellion are at the heart of our problems. We’re much more comfortable discussing imperfections, weaknesses, mistakes, peccadilloes (minor offenses), and errors in judgment. These terms are socially acceptable, and almost everyone identifies with them. But an outright acknowledgment of guilt before a holy GOD, a 100% acceptance of responsibility for wrongdoing, runs against the grain. Yet this kind of honesty is the first step to the freedom from sin and guilt that GOD has provided in the death of CHRIST. The Apostle Paul was well aware of our disposition to deny our sinfulness and rebellion. Therefore, from creation, from history, from reason and logic, and from conscience, Paul has already presented powerful testimony of man’s sinfulness and rebellion. He has already made the charge that Jews and Gentiles alike are all under sin. Now he presents the ultimate evidence, the evidence of Scripture itself… REMEMEBER: “We’ve ALL have FALLEN, But We Can Get Up…” FAILURE is the one thing we don’t want to be labeled as. And as a result, we fear FAILURE. We’re afraid of what it might do to us. “If I FAIL what will happen to me? What will other people think? Will I be rejected? Will anybody love me? Will I be considered worthless?” The fear of FAILURE is a universal fear. And it causes many of us an enormous amount of stress in our lives. The fear of FAILURE can cause us to be indecisive; we’re worried about what choice to make. “What if I make the wrong choice?” So we can’t decide. The fear of FAILURE can cause us to be workaholics - we work and overwork, trying to keep up, trying to get ahead, and trying to stay ahead. The fear of FAILURE can cause us to be a perfectionist where we’re always worried that it’s never good enough to meet the critiquing of people. And we’re never quite satisfied because we’re afraid people won’t like what we did, or how we did it, we’ll be looked on as a FAILURE. The fact of the matter is, FAILURE is a part of life. The first fact about FAILURE is that FAILURE is a fact. And though we can seek to minimize our mistakes and FAILURES, the issue is not how to keep from FAILIING, but how to survive and recover from our FAILURES. REMEMEBER: “We’ve ALL have FALLEN, But We Can Get Up…” Everybody FAILS - Have you made mistakes? Welcome to the human race. It just means we’re alive. In James 3:2 (NIV) it says, “We all stumble in many ways.” We’re all living proof of this verse. FAILURE is a part of life. We are going to FAIL. We have already FAILED many, many times in our life. Right now we are probably FAILING in some areas of our life. We’re going to FAIL many more times in the future. It’s inevitable - it’s a part of life. Nobody is perfect. The closest we’re ever going to get to perfection is when we are filling out a self-description on a job application because, we don’t discuss the FAILURES. We describe the successes. And when we’re describing ourselves, or handing them our resume about ourselves, that’s the best we’re ever going to be. But everyone FAILS. Even those who are the best at what we do, we do not do it right all the time… Even the superstars FAIL. Pro basketball players miss on the average of 50% of their shots. In professional baseball, a player is considered outstanding if he can get on base 3 out of every 10 times he gets up to bat. And they also say that, the players who hit the most home runs usually strike out the most, too. They strike out more than they get on base. And those are the superstars. Those are the ones who get paid the multi-million dollar contracts. REMEMEBER: “We’ve ALL have FALLEN, But We Can Get Up…” When we do FAIL, we often over exaggerate the effects of that FAILURE. We blow it out of proportion. It’s not the end of the world. GOD wants us to feel conviction, not condemnation. The fear of FAILURE is far more damaging to our life than FAILURE is. With FAILURE - we FAIL, we pick ourselves up and we go on. The fear of FAILURE - we can let that haunt us for years and years. The fear of FAILURE is actually worse than FAILURE in what it does to our life. The more talented we are, the more we tend to fear FAILURE. In other words, people fear FAILURE most in the area in which we are gifted. But a lot of that stress comes from the perfect performances that we think is required. The fear of FAILURE is almost universal. It is even a part of many believers’ lives. Even Christians fear FAILURE. And we experience FAILURE, but FAILURE is not fatal… Proverbs 24:16 says, “For a righteous man FALLS seven times, and always gets back up.” This verse says even the best of us make mistakes, even the righteous stumble. We who are earnestly trying to live right and GOD-ly in life, even we FALL, we mess up, and make mistakes. Even when we may be, or feel like we are complete FAILURES. We can still get up… Our FAILURE is not fatal… What is the difference between a FAILURE and a success in life? Successful people simply get up and keep on going. We learn from those FAILURES. Those who FAIL stay there and never get up to try again… In the famous words of the late singer Aaliyah, “If at first you dont succeed, dust yourself off and try again, you can dust it off and try again…” REMEMEBER: “We’ve ALL have FALLEN, But We Can Get Up…” Be Encouraged and Don’t Give Up… Rev. O. W. Woodard July 12, 2014 #FBIMinistries
Posted on: Sat, 12 Jul 2014 08:12:27 +0000
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