Get Up!

Do not rejoice over me, O my enemy. Though I fall I will rise; Though I dwell in darkness, the Lord is a light for me. – Micah 7:8

Church people who know me have often heard me quote Proverbs 24:16, which reads, “For a righteous man falls seven times, and rises again, but the wicked stumble in time of calamity.” It plainly tells the reader that even righteous people fall many times. The fall might be emotional, moral, or spiritual. It might even be a setback of one’s situation (loss of job, sudden illness, etc.). Whatever the case, they screw up. They drop the ball. They miss the mark.

The difference, it would seem, is that they always get back up.

Micah 7:8 also communicates this idea of personal recovery. And maybe the most inspiring part of this truth that both verses communicate is that the Lord is the source of strength. He is the Light in the darkness.

But there is another truth you shouldn’t lose sight of. What the Lord does NOT necessarily do is remove the thing that causes people to stumble. What He doesn’t do is remove the darkness, per se. Instead, He becomes a light within it. He doesn’t remove the stumbling blocks; He simply enables the righteous person to get back up after they fall and jump over the hurdle.

Put in more practical terms, when you tell a lie to someone, God enables you with courage and conscience to make things right. When you become overwhelmed with fear and anxiety because you lost your job, the Lord empowers you to overcome that fear and to recover. Whatever brings you to your knees, God gives you what you need to rise again.

The prophet Micah just spent the first six verses of this chapter lamenting the fact that he can find no one righteous in the world around him. From common people to princes and judges, everyone seems to be on the take. Then in verse 7, he says, “I will watch expectantly for the Lord; I will wait for the God of my salvation.” This is the verse that precedes the one I referenced above. And I say it is vital because it contains the correct attitude for any righteous person dealing with failure and calamity.

No matter how great the anxiety or fear or pain, God has given you the strength to recover from it. It might not be immediate. It might not be conventional in how you overcome it. But His inexhaustible strength has been given.

Where righteous and unrighteous people alike struggle needlessly in the continuous stumbles of life is that they take their eyes off God. It's natural to focus on a hurdle in the road when you are running down it. Where else would you look, right? But when it comes to the hurdles of life, God has said that focusing on the hurdle is a guarantee to fall and stay down. However counteruntuitive it might seem to take your eyes off the hurdle and place them on God, that is the strategy righteous people live by. It's why they rise again every time.

But most of us know how easy it is to take your eyes off of Jesus. Just ask Peter (Matthew 14:22-32). We stop waiting for Him. We try doing things in their own strength. The prophet Micah separates a fallen society from himself with one simple question. Where does your attention lie? On you and the world around you, filled with its problems and evil, or is your attention on the Lord, who provides you with the strength to overcome?

I get it, though. When the problems of your life mount up like a fervent posse in search of their mark, you can feel overwhelmed. When you let a few habitual behaviours get out of control, it can seem like you just dug the hole a little too deep. You have fallen. And it hurts. And the results, sometimes, can be serious.

But if you have given your life to the Lord Jesus, you possess the very thing these verses speak about. You have the strength to get up.

So, if you lost your job, get up.

If you deal with addiction, get up.

If you have a broken relationship with someone, get up.

If your faith has grown stale, get up.

If you are filled with fear about the world around you and where it's going and don’t know which way to turn, get up.

Are you hearing it yet? Get up!

The Lord your God has provided you with the strength you need to do the very thing you feel currently feel unable to do. The key is to start focusing your attention not on what you cannot do in light of your struggle. Rather, focus your attention on the One who can overcome all things.

Take heart my friend; get up.

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