JUST MAN FALLETH SEVEN TIMES – Proverbs 24:16
Proverbs 24:16 For a just man falleth seven times, and riseth up again: but the wicked shall fall into mischief.
All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. Just because you have accepted Jesus Christ as your personal Savior, it does not mean that you will never sin again. You will sin, and when you sin, you must not allow your sin to drag you down. Instead, you must get up and allow the blood of Jesus to wash you and thus allow you to continue to do the will of God.
Satan is going to do everything in his power to cause you to look at your sin and not get up out of the sin that you just committed. Satan desires you to be looking back at your past and reminding yourself how you have sinned and how God could never forgive you for committing the exact same offense again.
Do not let Satan cause you to believe that God will not forgive you because you keep committing the same sin. One day, Peter came up to Jesus asking HIM how many times he had to forgive his brother for committing the exact same offense. Jesus told Peter that he had to forgive his brother seven times seventy.
If God requires us to forgive our brother seven times seventy, what makes you think that God will not forgive you for committing the same offense over and over again?
We all sin and fall short of the glory of God. The difference between Christians is how they respond after they sin. There are three main responses when a Christian has sinned. The first response is the man who confesses his sin and then gets back on the path that God has led him on. The man is grieved for what he has done, and he uses the tools God has given him to fortify himself against the attacks of the wicked one. The second way a Christian will respond to sin will be to allow it to stop his ministry. The Christian acts as if Christ forgave him once but that there is no way for Christ to do it a second time. The third way a Christian responds to sin is to simply not care. They take grace to the far extreme and thus do not change their ways but simply do what they want when they want.
You need to be like the just man who understands that sin is not good and that you need to repent from your wicked ways and get up and continue to serve HIM. Do not allow Satan to continue to drag you down into sin. Remember, greater is HE that is in you then HE that is of this world.
David sinned, but David did not allow his sin to stop him from serving the Lord. David repented of his sins and he continued to strive to have a heart after the heart of God. David still suffered the punishment for sinning against a Holy God, but David did not allow his punishment to deter him from doing the will of God. While David suffered some great punishments as a result of his sins, God still blessed David and still fulfilled the promise that the Son of God came from the line of David.
There are times in your life where trials and temptations will come into your life. Your response to these trials and temptations will be determined by your love of God and your desire to do HIS perfect will. The more time you spend adding knowledge of the ways of God, the easier it will be for you to get up and continue to pursue the perfect will of God. Do not allow your sins to stop you from serving God. Get up, get moving, and get back to doing what God desires you to do. If you do not get up, you are destroying your own ministry.