Daily Verse Devo - Proverbs 24:16
"For the righteous falls seven times and rises again, but the wicked stumble in times of calamity."
-Proverbs 24:16 (ESV)
Have you ever had those times that were so embarrassing that you wished you could be invisible?
I'll never forget the summer before 4th grade. I was in 4-H and had won 1st place in the scrapbook division, so I was invited to an award show at the local fair. There were so many honorees from various categories and we were all crowded together in the back of an open-air tent.
I was nervous and claustrophobic. I also have this horrible habit of judging people before I know them and was scared of the person next to me. I was just ready to get my trophy and leave.
After shaking hands and accepting the generous award, I forgot about the three steps at the bottom of the stage and completely wiped out! There were hundreds of people there and I had fallen on my face!
In all honesty, it served me right. Judging someone without cause is never right and I truly didn't watch where I was going.
It's amazing how many times the Bible talks about falling. It's not really about being clumsy, but about being burdened by hardships or falling away from the faith.
In Proverbs 24:16, I love the fact that the righteous falls 7 times and gets back up. In times of hardship, the wicked stumbles and that's it. But for the righteous, God gives them the strength to endure hard times and forgives mistakes.
Falling once at the award ceremony was humiliating. I can't imagine doing it six more times. Yet, God's forgiveness is able to cover us no matter how many times we mess up.
God loves the wicked just as much as the righteous, but He will only help those who ask Him to. Asking for God's strength requires humility, but it's so worth it.
So whatever difficulty you're facing - illness, difficult assignments, job situations - remember that God is there. Even if you mess up seven times in a row, He will give you the strength to rise.