“I’ve fallen and I can’t get up!” If you’re like me, your hand instinctively reaches for the remote when this commercial starts. I know the product is great for the elderly living alone, but the advertisers sure could employ more convincing actors. The one with the well dressed lady lying on the floor while leaning on one elbow staring in the camera and trying to look hurt is pathetic—that is her acting. Well, enough of my venting.
This is about the same picture I envision when I read about Jesus going to the pool at the sheep gate where a multitude of those who were sick, blind, lame, and withered lay. Here He found a man who had been ill for thirty-eight years. Jesus asked him if he would like to get well. The only thing missing was a camera crew for a commercial. Essentially, the man replied, “I’ve fallen, and I can’t get up and nobody will help me.”
This is the place the devil likes to get Christians—fallen and won’t get up. But note the words of Solomon, though a righteous man falls seven times, he will get up (Proverbs 24:16). My early theological training said you couldn’t fall after you became a Christian. Ha! That belief didn’t last long. It’s not a matter of ‘if’ we’re going to fall, but rather ‘when’ we’re going to fall. The important point is what we do after we fall. It’s simple, repent and get up. Yet, at the same time Satan is telling us we can’t get up and also doing everything in his power to knock us down again. I’ve been in that place too many times and even reached the point of thinking is was easier to stay down.
My all time favorite movie was “Cool Hand Luke.” In one scene Luke (Paul Newman) and was fighting Dragline the chain-gang-camp bully, played by George Kennedy. Dragline was definitely the bigger, better boxer and was trouncing Luke, who he knocked down again and again. The other prisoners were shouting, “Luke stay down!” But he’d get up again only to be knocked down again. Finally, even Dragline told him, “Stay down Luke.” To which he replied, “You’ll have to kill me first.” The scene ended as Dragline just walked away with Luke on the ground trying to get up.
There are those times we have to be as determined as Luke when Dragline Devil wants us to stay down. Our motto must be, “I’ve fallen, but I’m getting up.” Jesus didn’t have words of sympathy for the man at the pool. I’ve always found it interesting that when Jesus asked if he wanted to get well, he didn’t says yes. Instead he just began reciting his list of excuses. The man had apparently convinced himself that he was beyond hope. What Jesus did tell the man was, “Get up.”
The devil wants us to believe that we’ve fallen so far down and so many times, that it’s not possible for us to get up again. I was impressed recently while studying the churches in the Book of Revelation and Jesus’ message to the church at Laodicea. He had no commendations for them, only condemnation. Yet, even though Christ rebuked them, it was also an indication of His ongoing love for them.
He tells them, As many as I love, I rebuke and discipline. So be committed and repent. Listen! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and have dinner with him, and he with Me (Revelation 3:19-20). Even this apostate church had not fallen too far to get up.
Sustaining Word for the Week:
Maybe you’ve fallen and think you’re beyond hope. Jesus would say to you, “Get up.”