Psalms 37:23-24 The LORD makes firm the steps of the one who delights in him; though he may stumble, he will not fall, for the LORD upholds him with his hand.
My wife used to teach Israeli dance workshops all over the world. And over the years, she has acquired a few interesting and rather funny stories of people, including herself, tripping and stumbling over each other during a class.
Stumbling is not one of my most favorite things in the world. It's embarrassing and often hurts. The fact is, however, that stumbling is something we all must experience. The question is -- what do we do when it happens?
Imagine this. You're walking home and you trip and fall over a random object on the sidewalk. You scraped your knee and it hurt a little. And the kids walking home from school behind you saw you trip and giggled amongst themselves -- that was kind of embarrassing. But will you go all the way back from where you came and start again from the beginning? Or will you just sit and sulk on the curb, refusing to take another step at the thought of it happening again? No! Of course not! That would just be silly, wouldn't it?
So is it on our walk through life with the Lord. Satan would love nothing more than for us to go sulk in a corner somewhere and dwell on our humiliation and fear that it might happen again. But the Lord wants us to rise up, dust the dirt off our clothes, maybe give a little chuckle ourselves and move forward for His Kingdom!
Yes, we may stumble on this long and sometimes treacherous journey but we will not be cast down! The Lord has upheld us and He will always! So get back up, continue to press through ... and remind yourself once again the victory was already won for you 2000 years ago!
Enjoy a break from a long week ... enjoy your weekend ... Shabbat Shalom!
Copyright 1999-2024 Worthy Devotions. This devotional was originally published on Worthy Devotions and was reproduced with permission.
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[worthy_plugins_devotion_single_body]When Elijah went up to to heaven, Elisha took up his mantle and walked in the power of Elijah. The Hebrew word for mantle is "aderet". It's root word is "adir", which means excellent, gallant, glorious, mighty, noble and worthy! Elijah was a man with these qualities. The mantle that Elisha received from Elijah meant a calling which was powerful. Elisha had earned it. When the two first met, Elisha had slaughtered the oxen he was plowing with, and burned them on the wood of their yoke as an offering. Then he followed and served the prophet until the day Elijah was taken miraculously to Heaven.
One of the paradoxes of our walk is that God’s gifts often require work on our part. After He delivered the Israelites from the Egyptians, the Lord led them to the Promised land and told them He was going to "give" it to them. It wasn't long before they realized, however, that they were going to have to fight battles and overcome fortified cities in order to inhabit the land. God did promise that they would not have to fight the battles on their own, but even with this divine advantage the Israelites themselves would be required to destroy their enemies – they would still need to fight.
A good pastor friend of ours told us that his congregation was experiencing some hardships and division. How often does this happen among us? It breaks my heart -- and I believe the Lord weeps over this too.
I came across an old article about "fake physicians". According to this article, many American citizens could be receiving medical treatment from doctors who lied on their medical school loan applications and used the money to pay a broker for fake documents. One guy was arrested and later admitted that he was paid beaucoup bucks to hand out approximately a hundred phony medical documents claiming that his clients completed their training! Can you imagine?!
I came across a powerful parable written by a Haitian pastor illustrating to his congregation the need for total commitment to the Lord.
We arrived at the airport late Thursday night with our bags and our kiddos only to find out that our flight was canceled because of a freak accident -- a tractor ran into the plane, of all things! So we repacked our ourselves tightly into a small rental car to make the two hour drive to get back home to Arad in the middle of the night. Our flight was postponed till Sunday.
There is a tale told of that great English actor Macready. An eminent preacher once said to him: "I wish you would explain to me something."