The righteous person may fall seven times, but he or she always gets back up. This truth, found in the words of Proverbs 24:16, has encouraged me many times over the years. I’ve stumbled as a follower of Christ more times than I care to think about. And until God spoke to me through the words of this proverb, I carried around a lot of guilt.
But once this truth captured my spirit, and I began to understand the most important quality of a righteous person, I began to grow spiritually in ways I never imagined. I also began to understand righteousness in a way I never had before.
Apart from our understanding of the righteousness that comes to us through faith in what Jesus did for us through the cross, a lot of Christians I know have a hard time thinking of themselves as righteous. Am I describing you? If so, I want you to hear me loud and clear:
Your righteousness is not determined by how often you fail and fall. Your righteousness is seen as over and over you continue to get back up, dust off the spiritual dirt, and continue on your faith journey with Jesus.
That’s why the proverb tells us that righteous people get back up seven times; that is, over and over and over again.
Too many people have left the church and left the Christian life because they feel defeated. And I’ll be honest; this is something that happens because of our lack of transparency and authenticity in the church. We are so afraid to open up, sharing our own struggles with others, afraid of what they may think.
But as we read in our Bibles about Abraham, who twice gave his wife, Sarah, to pagan kings to save his neck, or Moses, who struck, in anger, the rock in the wilderness, or Jeremiah, who accused God of lying to him, or Peter’s cursing denial in the courtyard of the high priest, how can we not recognize that what made these servants of God righteous was seen more than anything else in their ability to get back up when they fell?
I’m going to make a promise to you - You will fall, you will fail many times as a follower of Jesus. Believe me, I know that better than anybody! But what makes you faithful is not your falling, but your willingness to get back up.
Maybe you’ve taken a huge fall recently in your faith-walk with Jesus. You’re filled with guilt. You feel beaten, unworthy, and frankly, tired. But I want you to think about something - We need you. The church needs you. Nothing and I mean nothing, is more encouraging than to see someone broken and bleeding, get back up and continue to run the race.
In Christ,
Dan
Learn more about Church on the Edge at danarmistead.com.
So good!!! 👏 👏 👏