DOWN, BUT NOT OUT

"when we are knocked down, we get up again." (2 Corinthians 4:9b CEV)

We will stumble.  Not even God's greatest champions make it through the battlefield of this world without being bloodied.  The question is not whether defeat will occur, but how will we respond to it? If you get knocked down, you don't have to be knocked out.

One of the most appealing qualities about the Rocky Balboa movie character was his bulldog tenacity.  He would get up again and again.  Rocky was resilient.  He would not throw in the towel.  Neither must we!  That is what the Enemy of our souls desires.

Noah built an ark, but was also blind drunk and naked in his tent.  Abraham had faith to have an Isaac, but not enough to resist his wife's proposal that brought Ishmael into the world--and we are still paying a price in the Middle East conflict over that one.  Jacob was a scoundrel only a God of amazing grace could choose to found His chosen people.  Moses started his career with the murder of an Egyptian, and ended it short of his life's goal.  Joshua led the Israelis to overcome the fortress of Jericho, only to see the army routed by a few warriors from Ai.  Samson--really, do we have to rehearse his defeats, before he finally "brought down the house"?  David was a man who beat a giant with a slingshot, but would be overcome by lust.  Elijah stood, one man against four hundred false prophets, and then ran like a scared rabbit from Jezebel's wrath.  Jonah was a fugitive from God's will before he led a spiritual awakening--and with a sorry attitude even then!  Peter is the New Testament poster child of defeat--and of recovery and subsequent victory.  If you feel defeated, you are in good company.

We can be bruised and broken, but we don't have to be finally beaten.  If Jesus would restore Simon Peter, then He can do the same for us.  Learn from the past, but don't live in it.  Dwelling in the land of regret is to settle for the shadowlands of "What if?"  It is to miss what can be because of what has been.  Confess your sin.  Pray through Psalm 51, with sincerity, and then get up, dust yourself off and get back into the fray.  God is not through with you.