Consider this mind-teasing quote – "When you fall, I’ll be there to catch you. With love, the floor." Do you find much comfort in that? I’ve fallen several times over the span of my life. In every case the floor, or ground, caught me! Most of my physical falls have been of little lasting consequence. I just got up and went on, none the worse for the fall (except maybe embarrassed!). But two falls proved more serious, resulting in a broken wrist. The first time I broke the left wrist (while 36 years old). The second occurred earlier this year (February, 2021, at 66 years old!). The result was a broken left wrist. Months after this fall, I’m still recovering. I guess old bones heal more slowly than younger ones!
Here’s a question to ponder – when you fall, will you bounce back, or will you break? It depends, someone observed, on whether you are an "egg" or a "tennis ball." When you drop an egg, it usually breaks and can’t be put together again (remember Humpty-Dumpty?!). But what happens when you drop a tennis ball? It bounces! We all take spiritual falls. God cannot lie (Titus 1:2; Hebrews 6:18), and the apostle John shoots straight when he says in 1 John 1:10, "If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him [that is, God] a liar, and His word is not in us" (also see Romans 3:23). Here’s the thing. We all fall spiritually, but praise be to God, we can bounce back. All sin can be forgiven when we turn to God on conditions in the gospel (Act 2:38 * Mark 16:15-16 * Colossians 2:10-13). If we truly obey God, He is merciful to forgive us. Through Jesus, our sins He "remembers no more" (Hebrews 8:12). But while God promises to forgive us, many of us have a difficult time forgiving ourselves. Now make no mistake about this – God wants to forgive us. A cross stained with the blood of His only begotten Son screams He is dying to forgive us. But even though we all fall, we don’t all react the same way. Judas and Peter are examples. Judas, overcome with grief after he betrayed Jesus, went out and hung himself (Acts 1:8). When he fell, he broke. Peter also fell, more than once. In quick succession he denied he knew Jesus three times the night the Lord was arrested and tried by a kangaroo court of religious hypocrites. After he fell Peter was filled with guilt and remorse. Matthew 26:75 says, "He went out and wept bitterly." But though bruised and battered from his fall, Peter didn’t break! He bounced back like a tennis ball! Although at the bottom of a self-dug hole, he didn’t dig deeper. Through God’s grace and the love and forgiveness of Jesus, Peter was forgiven and restored.
How about you? Have you fallen into some sinful relationship or activity that left you bruised with a bleeding conscience and gasping for spiritual air under a smothering load of guilt? Do you fixate and obsess on a past fall? To stay stuck there is like being stung to death by a single bee. It stings and dumps soul-killing poison into your heart every time you return there in your mind. Life is slippery, and the Bible seeks to sober us when it says in 1 Corinthians 12:10, "Let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall." Life is a slippery place. It is easy to fall. But God’s word offers hope – "For a righteous man may fall seven times and rise again, But the wicked shall fall by calamity" (Proverbs 24:16). The issue is not will you ever fall – we all do at times. The issue is will you break? Have you fallen into sin? Let me remind you that getting to heaven is a matter of bouncing back one more time than you fall! Christ died and was buried, but He bounced back! You may fall into sin, but thanks to Jesus, you can bounce back! Will you bounce, or break?
by: Dan Gulley, Smithville, TN
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