What catches you up? What causes you to stumble?
What is holding you back from achieving what God intended for you to
do?
For
those who know me; you have seen that I tend to trip up physically
now and then and it is usually when I am striving to do too much on
my own. God allows this to happen I think to strengthen me in my
spiritual walk, or to get my attention at times.
Some
days I think to myself “what am I not learning in this trial or
test I keep going through?” because it seems the exact same thing
keep happening.
Throughout
the Word of God we can see that God used many people who got caught
up in the cares around them, some for the good of His people and some
to pull them back into submission.
No
matter what I go through because I am a self surrendered Christian I
know that my God is in control.
I
can know that if I make a mistake and trip on my path that my God
will send help!
This
week I found this physical evidence to support the spiritual view I
received in the Word; I tripped and fell and immediately three pairs
of hands came reaching down to help me up. Sure some may have been
there just because I was in the way of the path but it amazed me how
strangers reached out to help. Our God is the same today as He was in
the Word!
Now there was a certain disciple at Damascus named Ananias; and to him the Lord said in a vision,“Ananias.” And he said, “Here I am, Lord.”
So the Lord said to him, “Arise and go to the street called Straight, and inquire at the house of Judas for one called Saul of Tarsus, for behold, he is praying. Acts 9 :10-11
When
Paul, formerly known as Saul was blinded by the Light of Christ he
did not get left laying there on the ground. He was not made to
stumble in the darkness alone, but God sent him to Ananias to receive
help. What is more, God sent Ananias to Paul to heal and to help him.
Now Ananias was not too pleased with this idea at first; Saul was on
the road to Damascus to capture and kill Christians! Ananias could
have stumbled here and said no way I will not obey, but he didn't.
Thought he questioned God's choice of people to go to he still chose
to obey. He continued on the path to do the will of the Lord.
And in a vision he has seen a man named Ananias coming in and putting his hand on him, so that he might receive his sight.”
Then Ananias answered, “Lord, I have heard from many about this man, how much harm he has done to Your saints in Jerusalem. And here he has authority from the chief priests to bind all who call on Your name.”
Acts 9 :12-14
Just
think for a moment; what if Ananias had not gone to Saul/Paul out of
fear? How many of us related to Paul's words and were drawn to
Christian living because of it? How many of us were out there
thinking that we had to do works to get to Heaven? How many of us
thought we were “doing the right thing” who may have not made it
to truly knowing God if Ananias had not helped Saul see as Paul?
Ananias had to do what Proverbs 3:5-7 tells us to do; to trust God
and not try to understand it, just do it!
What
about Esther? What if she had tripped up and allowed fear to stop her
from going before the king? A nation could have been wiped out in a
day.
What
if Joseph had not spoken up about the interpretation of the dream
when he was in jail?
So
many people are affected when we stumble and do not choose to rise
up.
Rejoice
not against me, O mine enemy: when I fall, I shall arise; when I sit
in darkness, the Lord shall be a light unto me.
Micah 7:8
This
verse is a song many of us can sing as we read it, but do we really
think about what it says? If we fall we shall rise because the enemy
can't keep us in darkness but instead the Lord will light the way for
us to get up!
So
what is stopping you today from rising up and stepping out in faith
to claim the promises, the directive orders, or to follow the path
that God has so ordained you to go on?
If
blindness did not stop Saul, if the threat of dying did not stop
Esther, if the idea of going back to the dungeon did not keep Joseph
from speaking out what God had shown him; who are we to stumble and
fall and cry that we can't get up? We don't have to worry we have the
one true Life Alert!
We
need to just call out the name of Jesus and He will send help! Then
we need to dust ourselves off and keep on walking, knowing that God
will pick up any pieces that we dropped.
God
used my friend's daughter to pick up the sassafras sticks I had
purchased before tripping, they went flying to the ground as I did
and broke into pieces inside the bag. They did not fall apart because
there was a plastic seal around them, sort of like the Holy Spirit
who kept me from falling apart as I fell. You see I have fallen a
couple times this year and keep injuring the same area, but praise
God I have feet to walk on, I have strong legs and knees. I know this
because though I fell on them I was not even injured! Though I am
weak in my hands My God is enabling me to type today with very little
mistake and rewrites! I sit here amazed at the ease that my fingers
are typing on the keyboard, because really they were in worse
condition before I fell. Saul was in worse shape too before he fell
and saw the Light; he was blind in the spirit before he was blinded
physically by the Spirit.
When
we trip up on something mentally, or emotionally in our lives we
often do not see what God is doing because we are caught up in the
problem.
Maybe
your problem is financial, or physical illness or even a broken
heart; its not what happened but what you do through this time that
matters. When the tire is flat on your car you can either leave it
and allow the rim to get damaged while you are driving around or you
can stop and fix the flat.
Often
when we come up against a problem we will try to ignore it and allow
life to continue 'normally' thinking that it will just go away. It
won't. We need to deal with the thing that tripped us up and fix it
so that it does not happen again. As for me, I am assessing what
needs to change; my shoes. I have decided I need to find shoes that
will not allow me to trip up on their edges, that will not snag
themselves on the corner of a wooden sidewalk. The tread was worn
and I did not realize how easily it would be to slip or stumble on
the path last summer, and I did not realize how far the sides stuck
out that caught the edge of the wood causing me to stumble this
weekend.
The bad thing is that I fell, the good thing is I can fix
the problem and go on.
Now
I can see that if I kept the same shoes I would probably fall again.
My choice is to focus on reviving or correcting my steps, in this
case by buying new shoes. What if it were an emotional problem I was
having; how do we over come the problem of an emotional injury?
We
assess the problem and ask God what to do to fix it. That's what I
did with my shoes, I assessed the problem and asked God how to I stop
falling? Then I saw my shoes, I accept that this is the problem. Now
my job is to fix it by getting new shoes.
For fixing a broken heart we sometimes need to read some good scriptures, sometimes we need to fix it by prayer and worship; God knows our hearts and listens to us cry out, as we clean out the old feelings, hurts and wants, He will fill them with joy, peace and contentment to be where He wants us to be. For fixing a hand I put on a brace, it causes me to rest it and give it time to heal. Whatever it is that God has for you to do be ready to step out and do it, no matter what tries to trip you up.
Heavenly
Father, thank you for your direction in our lives. Thank You that we
can trust You to give us direction and hope for tomorrow. Give us
this day the strength to go on, in Jesus name, amen.
Suggested
Readings: Acts 9: 1-35, Micah 7:1-20, Psalm 35:1-28 and Proverbs
3:5-8