Get Back Up!

 

 “Then Samuel said to the people, “Do not fear. You have done all this wickedness; yet do not turn aside from following the Lord, but serve the Lord with all your heart. And do not turn aside; for then you would go after empty things which cannot profit or deliver, for they are nothing. For the Lord will not forsake His people, for His great name’s sake, because it has pleased the Lord to make you His people.” – 1 Samuel 12:20-22

 We all fail God.  We do it daily.  Sometimes it’s in the big monstrous things that we feel shame and guilt over.  But most commonly, it’s in the smaller things that we just habitually do because we’ve never really considered them to be against God’s will.  We stretch the truth, we overeat, we use bad language, we talk about people, we act on our anger – there’s a long lists!  We do these things remorse, almost as if we expect God to just accept the fact that we’re filled with faults.   Yet God has said “Be Holy, for I am Holy.” (1 Peter 1:16).  God would never ask us to do something outside our ability.  He provides the strength for us to overcome our habits and failures.  We just have to accept that strength and reject our own will to do what we know is wrong.

 Samuel gives some great advice to us after we’ve failed God repeatedly.  He was talking to the Israelite people who begged for a King and in so doing rejected the Lord as their head.  To paraphrase what he says in 1 Samuel 12:20-22, he says, “You screwed up! Repeatedly! But don’t let that be where your journey ends.  Follow God with all your heart because everything else will only leave you empty and unsatisfied.  God hasn’t forsaken you because of your sins.  Because you are His people, and He has chosen you to be His.  He’s not going to ruin His reputation by walking away from you.  So don’t walk away from Him.” 

There’s a quote that says it’s not how many times you fall, but how many times you get back up that counts.  Don’t let sin bury you.  Get back up.  Keep following God because His love for you doesn’t end at your mistakes.  You mean more to Him that what you’ve done.  His plan for you doesn’t end at your failure.  Keep on living His plan because nothing else will ever satisfy a soul that has tasted the joy of His salvation.