Get Up!

“I get knocked down but I get up again, ain’t nothing going to keep me down.” And repeat!

It seems to me that falling is just a part of life. It is going to happen. I seem to spend more time picking myself up off the ground than I actually spend standing. Since I spend so much time picking my self up I started looking at what was tripping me up in the first place. To my amazement I was tripping myself most of the time. There is nothing more embarrassing than throwing your self down on the ground in front of other people. When I screw up I can’t seem to keep it contained to just me. I tend to throw my arms out and take as many people out with me as I can. I don’t do this intentionally that’s just simply how it seems to go down, in my effort to slow down the fall. I usually do this by throwing accusations or trying to blame any one else but myself because it couldn’t possibly be just me! So I thought.

I had a paradigm shift in my thinking about seven months ago. Thank you Jesus that I fell flat on my face! That fall sucked. It was the hardest and most unbearable fall yet, but none the less I found my self on the ground once again and once more I had a choice. This was the time I chose to look at what was causing me to continue this cycle. The problem was me. I was packing a ton of stuff with me where ever I went. My burdens were so heavy it was just a matter of time before it would over power me to the ground again. I had allowed myself to carry stuff that was not mine to carry.

One of the enemies, (satan’s) favorite games is to show you how many times you fall while you are on your way down to the ground. So when you land it is as hard of a hit as he could possibly muster. This is how he keeps us down as long as he does. Every time I would go down, a fear would build in me. That fear just kept growing and growing until my fear of falling was greater than my ability to walk. When you focus on a fear it is just a mater of time before that fear is manifested. So I was stuck in this viscous cycle of throwing myself down then standing back up with more fear than when I fell.

You see I thought someone was keeping score. The enemy had convinced me that God could not possibly help me back up because of how many times I frequented the floor. Gods not keeping score, some of his people might be, but not him. God is love, remember. What did the Bible say about love?

1 Corinthians 13:4-5
Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud or rude. It does not demand its own way. It is not irritable, and it keeps no records of being wronged. Love endures all things.

A cool thing happens while you’re on the ground. You’re open to new ideas. We can get so busy with our lives that the only time we hear God is when we are at the end of ourselves. That is just the way he is. Not to keep us on the ground, but to show himself to us while we are there. When nothing else matters because we are striped of all our pride and we sit there vulnerable. We become teachable!

I am starting to understand what the bible means when it says to count it all joy when you fall into trials, and temptations. The joy is not in the fall but the getting back up. So think of it this way. The joy comes from understanding that you are loved regardless of the amount of times it takes you to come to the end of yourself. He will restore you to even a greater capacity than when you fell. The joy is that you don’t have to lift yourself back up. He will hold you up until you have enough strength in him to stand.

So keep moving forward don’t allow your trips to set you back. There are enough setbacks in life; you need not to add to them.

Keep this in mind. If you are moving forward when you fall the law of momentum is in effect. When you get up you are actually further than you where when you fell in the first place. Runners don’t fall strait down there momentum carries them a ways before they land. See, you’re still making progress even in the mist of a fall. I can see some joy in that!

Ephesians 3:17-20
May your roots go down deep into the soil of God’s marvelous love. And may you have power to understand, as all God’s people should, how wide, how long, how high, and how deep his love really is. May you experience the love of Christ, though it is so great you will never fully understand it. Then you will be filled with the fullness of life and power that comes from God. Now glory be to God! By his mighty power at work within us, he is able to accomplish infinitely more than we would ever dare to ask or hope.