get back up.

Do you ever have one of those days where you feel like you did everything wrong? Mistake after mistake, you just couldn't seem to catch a break. You tried to keep calm, take a deep breath and move on but you just kept messing up.

I have. It's not fun. It's not easy, either.

Feeling like a failure is probably a pretty "normal" feeling - I'm sure everyone has felt like that before. But I want to let you know that you don't have to feel like that.

If you weren't in the youth group at my church last night (where I volunteer as a youth sponsor), you missed a great sermon. Pastor Ben talked about Proverbs 24:16: "for though the righteous fall seven times, they rise again, but the wicked stumble when calamity strikes." The righteous fall. Not just "bad people" fall, not just fools or those who aren't saved fall... everyone falls. It's bound to happen - you're going to make mistakes. It's what you do next that makes all the difference. You can choose to fall farther down with each mistake until you're down on the ground, or you can reach up to God to pull you back up again.

When you make a mistake and ask God for forgiveness, He forgives you. He doesn't mark down your mistake on a chart, He doesn't add a red X after your name in the book of life, He doesn't tell you that He'll only forgive you if you don't make any more mistakes. 

"If we confess of our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness." 1 John 1:9

Isaiah 1:18 says, "...though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be white as snow..."

No matter how many times I stumble, God will cleanse me and make me white as snow. I love that! I don't have to worry that I've done so many things wrong that God loves me a little less than someone who hasn't messed up as much as I have. As soon as I repent, God wipes my slate clean so I can start again. It doesn't matter what I've done. There is no sin that I can commit that's too big for God to wipe clean. I won't be stuck with a red mark on my record forever. Isaiah 43:25 says, "But I, yes I, am the one who takes care of your sins - that's what I do. I don't keep a list of your sins." (MSG). In Hebrews 8:12, it says, "I will forgive their wickedness and remember their sins no more." (NIV). God isn't going to remind me of my past sins when I mess up. He's not going to tell me that he's forgiven me too many times for the same mistake. All I have to do is repent, ask God to forgive me and ask Him to help me follow his will and do better next time. And when I fall again, I just have to reach up to Him and He'll pull me back up before I fall flat on my face.