Get back up!

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.

How to display the above article within the Worthy Suite WordPress Plugin.

[worthy_plugins_devotion_single_body]

A major earthquake struck Taiwan over the weekend, which triggered a tsunami warning as far away as Japan.

This reminded me of when we first moved to Israel, in 2003.

When does God answer our prayers? And when do we receive what we ask of Him? And when are we confident He has heard our requests? Many of us wonder why our prayers seem to go unanswered.

A.W. Tozer had an interesting commentary on this verse. He said: "Faith is seeing the invisible, but not the nonexistent."

In the early 1800's a preacher gave a message to call men to join him on the mission field in Africa. In the audience were only a few women along with a boy. The pastor knew that few women were expected to volunteer to face harsh African jungle conditions. However, he gave the message; and no one responded. What he didn't realize was that he had touched the heart of a little boy whose name was David Livingstone. This boy would grow up to spend the rest of his life ministering to Africa's unreached tribes.

The word "verily", in this verse, is the Hebrew word “emunah” (em-oo-nah). It also means "faith" or "faithfully". When we trust in the Lord, and our trust is demonstrated by doing good, He declares that He will faithfully feed us. How will we be fed?

When the apostle Paul wrote this letter to his young student Timothy, he taught him some profound truths that I often apply in my life. I suppose when Timothy received these instructions, he was about my age – a young man still developing his skills at evangelism, teaching and instructing.

A significant response to the current pandemic has been medical professionals in various places offering valuable advice on the role of diet toward building and increasing our body's immunity to viruses and disease in general. This kind of advice can be truly salutary, even life-saving. Yet the aphorism, "You are what you eat", though often heard, isn't always taken as seriously as we might...And that may contribute to unpleasant health consequences.