BY GOD’S GRACE YOU CAN RISE AGAIN

WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 23

“Though the righteous fall seven times, they rise again.” Pr 24:16 NIV

The difference between success and failure is often the ability to get up one more time than you were knocked down! Moses could easily have given up. He had an “interrupted” childhood, lived with a foster family, had a criminal record, a stammering tongue, and a temper that would eventually keep him out of the Promised Land. But when God called him to lead Israel out of Egypt, he said “yes.” Joshua had been to the Promised Land, but then, through no fault of his own, he was forced to wander in the wilderness for forty years. He could have given up in discouragement, but he was willing to go when God said to go. Peter sank while trying to walk on water, was rebuked by Jesus for trying to tell Him what to do, and even denied knowing the Lord. He could easily have seen himself as a hopeless failure. But after he’d been to the upper room and was filled with the Holy Spirit, he preached, and three thousand people were won to Christ in a day. Eventually he became a leader in the church, wrote two books of the New Testament, and ended as a martyr for the cause of Christ. Have you fallen and feel like you can’t get up? These Scriptures are for you: “The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord...Though he fall, he shall not be utterly cast down; for the Lord upholds him with His hand” (Ps 37:23-24 NKJV). “Do not rejoice over me, my enemy; when I fall, I will arise” (Mic 7:8 NKJV).