(Psa 94:18) If I say, "My foot slips," Your mercy, O LORD, will hold me up.
I went surfing this past week. I hadn’t been out in a long while. But “old surfers never die” and the beach was calling. It was one of those perfect days. The sun was warm, the wind was gentle, the water was surprisingly clean, and Cheryl was relaxing on the sand. The only problem though, I was out of surf wax and the amount on my board from the last outing was patchy and spread out very thin. But I was eager to get in the water so I avoided the trip to the surf shop for a new bar of wax. It took a little time to get my finesse back but I was soon gliding on white foam and digging it. But the small amount of remaining wax eventually rubbed off until I went slipping off my board like a wild man on a banana peel! How frustrating . . . and embarrassing!! I had to paddle in and hang it up.
The spiritual life can kind of be like that. Slippery! Satan has his ploys to get us on that slippery ice and make us fall. But God knows the devices of the enemy and stands ready to hold us up. The traction in the Spirit we need comes from the wonderful promises in His Word that speak of His holding power in our lives. Here are a few of them:
· (Jude 1:24) Now to Him who is able to keep you from stumbling, And to present you faultless Before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy.
· (1 Pet 1:5) who are kept by the power of God through faith for salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.
· (Psa 116:8) For You have delivered my soul from death, My eyes from tears, And my feet from falling.
And if we happen to fall then it will be a lesson to us. God is forgiving and gracious and is the God of the “second chance”...and third...and forth...etc. So we shouldn’t just lay there in defeat. In Christ there is no condemnation (Rom 8:1). We’ve got to get up and move forward in Jesus:
· (Pro 24:16) For a righteous man may fall seven times And rise again...
· (Phil 3:13-14) Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, 14 I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.
Louie