Do We Think We Are Above Falling

“For though the righteous fall seven times, they rise again, but the wicked stumble when calamity strikes.” – Proverbs 24:16

                The feeling of being trapped, not able to escape and slowly beginning to believe that you are a failure – have you ever felt that?  I think that this can be a very common feeling and a common feeling in the church.  I know that I have felt this way many times, but I was too ashamed to talk about it.  When we become saved the Bible says we die to our flesh and our alive in Him. We are a new creation, called to be holy, we are called to obey God.  Does that make us Holy as soon as we rise up from the water we are being baptized in?  No, of course not, because it is a growing process that takes endurance for the rest of our lives.

                While here in Costa Rica we have six books assigned to us as reading material.  The book that I am reading now is called “The Pursuit of Holiness,” and I really like it. It talks about the importance to be holy, the fact that it is our responsibility (through God’s strength) to run towards holiness, but also the fact that we will fall.  When he talked about this verse in Proverbs, I was amazed that I never had noticed it before.  So often we think that as Christian we won’t or can’t fall, because people are watching us and we are called to a higher standard.  Yet, at the very same time we know that we are not perfect and that it is only through the work of the Holy Spirit that we can overcome our flesh.  But as my teammate’s mom once said, “Who do we think we are, that we could be above sinning?” 

                This hit me hard, right in the face.  I had always felt this pressure, this pressure to make sure everything was right, to live up to the standard and not fall below status quo.  People so often would put me up on this standard, and “pick on me” for never messing up.  I hated it.  The hardest thing about it, was that I knew that I messed up and that I messed up very often.  Like Paul says, “I do what I don’t want to do and don’t do what I want to do.”  Reading this book has been so confirming and comforting in a way.  The righteous fall, but they get back up.  Yes, we all make mistakes and multiple times, but what do we do about it?  Do we get back up and run our race?  Do we lay it at the feet of Jesus, asking for His strength to endure?  “The righteous fall seven times, [but] they rise again.”   We all fall short, that is why we need a savior.  If we magically stopped sinning, then we would no longer need Jesus Christ our Savior.  He calls us to live a Holy life and that is why we run our race, so that He might mold us into a new creation.  He is going to chip away all the dirt and failure in our lives, we just have to lean on Him and let Him.