I CAN Get Up

There the doers of iniquity have fallen; they have been thrust down and cannot rise. Psalm 36:12

Years ago there was a commercial with an elderly woman who is remembered for her desperate statement, “I have fallen and I can’t get up!” Have you ever felt like that? I certainly have. Psalm 36:12 can be placed over the lives of many people. Pride, wickedness, and a refusal to turn to God can send them on a spiraling lifestyle where there is no recovery. How sad!
I am encouraged this morning because while there may be times that I fall and am thrust down, as a child of God I CAN rise. If I sin I can find forgiveness. If I am discouraged I can be encouraged. If my emotions have run amuck I can be strengthened once again. How? By coming to my father in humility and honesty and allowing Him to lift me up.

The Christian life is meant to be more than behavior modification and positive thinking. Those two things can pretty much be produced on our own. But it takes the Word of God and His Spirit in me to do a work that literally changes the way I think, act, and speak. It is not just an outward makeover. It is a complete overhaul! The things I change on my own result in temporary fixes at best. When God does the changing it lasts!

So I am asking myself this morning, what are the steps I must take and what is it that God does? Here is what I have learned so far:

I must come before Him in honesty. No more hiding. No more pretending I don’t have the thoughts and feelings that I have. He knows me thoroughly. Confession and repentance may be the first words out of my mouth. After that it may just be a time of admitting what is going on in my heart.
I must take time to listen to God’s response back to me. Many times it will be in recalling Scripture I have committed to memory. God’s Word has much to say about God’s thoughts toward me and how He longs for me to see myself.

Many times God will use these two things to transform my thinking and establish growth and change that is lasting.

Father, thank you for the many times you lift me up when I have fallen. Your hands hold me firmly as I continue on this journey with You. Amen.