And rise again

For a righteous man may fall seven times and rise again, But the wicked shall fall by calamity. Do not rejoice when your enemy falls, And do not let your heart be glad when he stumbles; Lest the LORD see it, and it displease Him, And He turn away His wrath from him. - Proverbs 24:16-18

There is a constant theme of scripture about the importance of persistence and stick-to-it-iveness and dedication and keeping on. That theme is there because we all do falter and stumble and fall.

But the righteous man keeps getting up, time after time after time after time after time. He is not going to be knocked down for good. Micah talks about that when he said that even if he falls seven times he will arise, pray, wait on the Lord, and God would hear him.

We read in the Bible about not being weary in doing well. We read about being steadfast and unmovable and always abounding in the work of the Lord. We read about not losing heart.

This happens all this time, but this week I saw a story about how one of the triathlete in a major race crashed his bike during the cycling segment. It was obvious he could not win, but instead of giving up he picked himself up and carried his bike to the changeover point and then finished the run segment.

That’s the kind of spirit we are talking about here. It’s the kind of spirit Paul writes about when he wrote ‘we are knocked down, but we are not knocked out.' 

So when the next blow comes, pick yourself up, dust yourself off, and keep on moving. We will get there some day and ‘what a day that will be.’