What if I stumble, what if I fall? What if I lose my step and I make fools of us all? Will the love continue when my walk becomes a crawl? What if I stumble and what if I fall? “What if I stumble?” chorus by DC Talk
Out on the battlefield of operation “Stress Seizures” my plattoon that consisted of of me, myself, and I had a motto. It was, “Satan can make us stumble but he can’t make us fall.” Stumbling was inevitable, it was something that was bound to happen whether it was my fault or an unknown cause.
For some reason at the time I saw the act of falling as something that was a choice I had the power to make. I saw it as my own decision to stay down once I was there with my face to the ground unwilling to get back up and move on. Denying myself the opportunity to move forward and let the wind on my face heal my wounds while I walked towards God.
Making a fool of myself felt like a daily occurrence as Satan blocked my true view of God and myself with the barrier of walls he was building around me. Walls painted with “What if I do this?” “What if I do that?” “What if I fall?” “What if I can’t do it?” “What if I should have done something else?” What if, what if, what if….WHAT IF!
I was paralyzed with a fear before I even started to do something. It was a fear that kept me down and stopped me before I even started. The echo it gave off sounded something like this, “I have no faith. I have no trust. No one cares if I fall anyway. Once a fool, always a fool.”
Running to God my tattle-tellers, which were the stress seizures I had whenever I worried about something, told on me. Already abreast of what was going on God handed me my accident insurance policy, His love and forgiveness.
He showed me daily that the “what ifs” I tried so hard to hang on to didn’t matter. What counted, what mattered, what was important was God’s love for me. It came with an accident forgiveness plan that even Allstate couldn’t top. I felt it in my heart. I saw it in His Word. Words such as 1 John 3:1 Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be called children of God! Therefore the world does not know us, because it did not know Him.”
“What manner of love the Father has bestowed on us?” There is the “What” we need to focus on without the “IF.” The “if” comes in, IF we would just read through His policy written in His Word. IF we would just look through our hearts we would find Him wanting to take up residency there. IF we would only believe and trust in the One that is there to get us across the finish line of life. He’s the coach at the beginning, the cheerleader along the way, the Head of the crowd that awaits us at the end. Oh what manner of love He bestows on us. Never doubt that, never lose sight of it.
Praise the Lord that it doesn’t matter IF we are skipping across the finish line or crawling on our knees. All that matters to God is that we arrive there, through our obedience, love, trust, and faith in Him.
Replacing the fears of “what if” with trusting God to heal us if we are hurt, to find us if we get lost, to pick us up if we happen to fall. We can question and doubt the cause of our stumbles and fall but we never should question God’s love for us.
We need to be like my two five-year-old boys I had in my Sunday School class this past Sunday. As they awaited their parents to arrive they stood there showing off their scars. Rolling up their pant legs, or displaying an elbow they had a story to tell for every scar. The story wasn’t about the tears they must have shed, the screaming their parents must have heard. All it was, was a “look what I got.”
We need to get across the finish line and then we can stop and compare scars. My guess is when we roll up those pant legs and display those elbows the scars won’t be there anymore. Oh what manner of love, what manner of love! It’s in our accident insurance policy with the premiums paid in full by Christ Himself.
All we have to do is sign up today for something we will receive tomorrow, victory in Jesus. No more scars, no more tears. The book of life contains our names not the tally score of how many times we stumbled and fell on our way to Heaven. “Oh what manner of love!”
© 2009 Karen J. Gillett @ Pencil Marks and Recipes Publishing
Out on the battlefield of operation “Stress Seizures” my plattoon that consisted of of me, myself, and I had a motto. It was, “Satan can make us stumble but he can’t make us fall.” Stumbling was inevitable, it was something that was bound to happen whether it was my fault or an unknown cause.
For some reason at the time I saw the act of falling as something that was a choice I had the power to make. I saw it as my own decision to stay down once I was there with my face to the ground unwilling to get back up and move on. Denying myself the opportunity to move forward and let the wind on my face heal my wounds while I walked towards God.
Making a fool of myself felt like a daily occurrence as Satan blocked my true view of God and myself with the barrier of walls he was building around me. Walls painted with “What if I do this?” “What if I do that?” “What if I fall?” “What if I can’t do it?” “What if I should have done something else?” What if, what if, what if….WHAT IF!
I was paralyzed with a fear before I even started to do something. It was a fear that kept me down and stopped me before I even started. The echo it gave off sounded something like this, “I have no faith. I have no trust. No one cares if I fall anyway. Once a fool, always a fool.”
Running to God my tattle-tellers, which were the stress seizures I had whenever I worried about something, told on me. Already abreast of what was going on God handed me my accident insurance policy, His love and forgiveness.
He showed me daily that the “what ifs” I tried so hard to hang on to didn’t matter. What counted, what mattered, what was important was God’s love for me. It came with an accident forgiveness plan that even Allstate couldn’t top. I felt it in my heart. I saw it in His Word. Words such as 1 John 3:1 Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be called children of God! Therefore the world does not know us, because it did not know Him.”
“What manner of love the Father has bestowed on us?” There is the “What” we need to focus on without the “IF.” The “if” comes in, IF we would just read through His policy written in His Word. IF we would just look through our hearts we would find Him wanting to take up residency there. IF we would only believe and trust in the One that is there to get us across the finish line of life. He’s the coach at the beginning, the cheerleader along the way, the Head of the crowd that awaits us at the end. Oh what manner of love He bestows on us. Never doubt that, never lose sight of it.
Praise the Lord that it doesn’t matter IF we are skipping across the finish line or crawling on our knees. All that matters to God is that we arrive there, through our obedience, love, trust, and faith in Him.
Replacing the fears of “what if” with trusting God to heal us if we are hurt, to find us if we get lost, to pick us up if we happen to fall. We can question and doubt the cause of our stumbles and fall but we never should question God’s love for us.
We need to be like my two five-year-old boys I had in my Sunday School class this past Sunday. As they awaited their parents to arrive they stood there showing off their scars. Rolling up their pant legs, or displaying an elbow they had a story to tell for every scar. The story wasn’t about the tears they must have shed, the screaming their parents must have heard. All it was, was a “look what I got.”
We need to get across the finish line and then we can stop and compare scars. My guess is when we roll up those pant legs and display those elbows the scars won’t be there anymore. Oh what manner of love, what manner of love! It’s in our accident insurance policy with the premiums paid in full by Christ Himself.
All we have to do is sign up today for something we will receive tomorrow, victory in Jesus. No more scars, no more tears. The book of life contains our names not the tally score of how many times we stumbled and fell on our way to Heaven. “Oh what manner of love!”
© 2009 Karen J. Gillett @ Pencil Marks and Recipes Publishing
6 comments:
Amen, such truth spoken here dear.
Karen this is GREAT!! I love the imagery of getting across the finish line no matter how we get there. "Oh what manner of love" indeed! Bless you for sharing.
Such gracious truth you speak when you say, "The book of life contains our names not the tally score of how many times we stumbled and fell on our way to Heaven." These are words of wisdom to ponder and cherish. Thank you for your encouragement today.
Denise Hughes
Karen, I love how you describe it like an insurance policy. If we keep our eyes focused on Jesus, He will give us what we need to finish the race of this life. I too fall often and probably make a fool of myself. This was a great take on our quote.
LOVE the "my scar's bigger than your's" story." Cute. :-)
But you are absolutely correct that whether we are skipping into Heaven or crawling, it's GOD's GRACE that got us there. And its God's Grace that helps us deal with the drama of our own crawl here on earth.
Thanks for sharing your testimony.
~esthermay
The "what ifs" . . . .we were in the same mindset . . . and I deal so continually with those "what ifs" . . . thank you for sharing!
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