You Can Rise Again

I want to talk today about how we as believers get knocked down, bruised and wounded so many times by so many things that we experience because we live in this sin ravaged world.  Believers seem to suffer as much or more than non-believers and much of it is brought on by bad choices and decisions we make, either through yielding to temptation or making wrong judgments.  Sometimes it is the enemy of our souls putting thoughts in our minds that we don’t take captive unto the Lord and we allow ourselves to meditate on certain things that are said that are negative about us or our families or friends.  Sometimes we allow a critical attitude to hinder our judgment and we become angry and bitter, walking around holding a grudge with a chip on our shoulders, so to speak, and when that happens we are knocked to the mat and we start losing one battle after another.

As long as we refuse to confess and repent and forgive we will never be able to rise again because sin is like having a large weight on your chest that just keeps getting heavier and heavier until it completely destroys us.  It also separates us from the Lord so that He won’t hear our prayers.

The Word says this in Isaiah 59:1-2,

“Behold, the Lord’s hand is not shortened,

That it cannot save;

Nor His ear heavy,

That it cannot hear.

But your iniquities have separated you from your God;

And your sins have hidden His face from you,

So that He will not hear.”

This was talking about the Israelites who sinned and held onto their sin without repenting.  

King David had this same problem when he sinned with Bathsheba and had her husband killed to cover up his sin.  Instead of confessing and repenting, King David held onto his sin for about a year.  When he was confronted by the prophet Nathan, he confessed and repented and found forgiveness and reconciliation, praise the Lord!  Read about his horrible experience in Psalms 51:1-19:

“Have mercy upon me, O God,

According to Your lovingkindness;

According to the multitude of Your tender mercies,

Blot out my transgressions.

Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity,

And cleanse me from my sin.

For I acknowledge my transgressions,

And my sin is always before me.

Against You, You only, have I sinned,

And done this evil in Your sight—

That You may be found just when You speak,

And blameless when You judge.

Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity,

And in sin my mother conceived me.

Behold, You desire truth in the inward parts,

And in the hidden part You will make me to know wisdom.

Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean;

Wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.

Make me hear joy and gladness,

That the bones You have broken may rejoice.

Hide Your face from my sins,

And blot out all my iniquities.

Create in me a clean heart, O God,

And renew a steadfast spirit within me.

Do not cast me away from Your presence,

And do not take Your Holy Spirit from me.

Restore to me the joy of Your salvation,

And uphold me by Your generous Spirit.

Then I will teach transgressors Your ways,

And sinners shall be converted to You.

Deliver me from the guilt of bloodshed, O God,

The God of my salvation,

And my tongue shall sing aloud of Your righteousness.

O Lord, open my lips,

And my mouth shall show forth Your praise.

For You do not desire sacrifice, or else I would give it;

You do not delight in burnt offering.

The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit,

A broken and a contrite heart—

These, O God, You will not despise.

Do good in Your good pleasure to Zion;

Build the walls of Jerusalem.

Then You shall be pleased with the sacrifices of righteousness,

With burnt offering and whole burnt offering;

Then they shall offer bulls on Your altar.”

The non-believer is continually in this situation, their sin will always separate them from the Lord until they repent and seek the Lord for forgiveness.  I believe sin always separates us from the Lord and that separation is like being knocked to the mat.  The difference between a winner and a loser is, the loser goes down and stays down, but the winner when knocked down gets back up ready to fight again.

When Judas Iscariot betrayed Jesus, it caused Jesus much harm and the evil one may have thought he had landed a knockout punch, and when it was all over you might say that Jesus was knocked to the matt because He was crucified, died and was buried, saying, “Father why has thou forsaken Me,” and then His last words, “It is finished.”  The evil one may have thrown a party, thinking that Jesus was knocked down for good and would never rise again, but the grave couldn’t hold Him and on the third day Satan’s party ended suddenly because Jesus rose again, halleluiah, praise the Lord!

Have you ever wondered why Jesus said, “Father, why hast thou forsaken me?”  I think it was because Jesus took upon Himself the sins of the world; a man who had no sin became sin for us, thank you Jesus.    Think of this, God the Father is so holy that He cannot look at sin, so momentarily God turned His back on the sin and Jesus felt separated from His Father at that point; but in all that Jesus faithfully accepted His fate and died willingly for our sins.  You might say that Jesus was knocked down also, but it wasn’t because He sinned, because He never sinned, then triumphantly He rose again!!  In our situation, we sin at times even as believers and we need to confess and repent and ask the good Lord to forgive us and try our best, with the Lord’s help, to never sin again.  When we do that, we will find forgiveness and we will also rise again!

Read what it says in 1 John 1:9, “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”

Enough said, I have given you some food for thought, may the good Lord bless you and yours and have a super day!!