Where To Now?

As I deplaned and walked off the jetway, I entered a room filled with escalators going in many different directions. All the signs were in French, which I couldn’t read, and I had no idea where I was supposed to go. Fear tried to grab me,

but that would do me no good, so I pushed it aside and tried to think. I noticed people I had seen on my plane and decided to follow them. I hopped on the same escalator they were ascending. Thankfully, awaiting at the top stood my welcoming host family. I was just 17 at the time, traveling to Paris alone for a five-week trip visiting a girl I had met the summer before when she stayed with my family.

At one time or another, we all find ourselves in what feels like overwhelming circumstances. We are not sure where to turn, where to go, or what to do. Fear wants to paralyze us and keep us from moving forward. However, God is clear that fear does not come from Him. “For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.” (II Timothy 1:7)

When circumstances in life start to overwhelm, meditate on Psalm 37:23-24, “The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord, and He delights in his way. Though he fall, he shall not be utterly cast down; for the Lord upholds him with His hand.”

The pastor that trained my husband and me in children’s ministry and biblical parenting, has this to say about challenges in life. “We are not the perfect people; we are the getting back up people.” When we fall, we have a choice. Do we stay down, or do we get back up and keep moving forward? That is one thing I love about the Bible. In documenting the stories of heroes, their mistakes and sins are included in the narrative. The heroes live on through the testimony shared in Scripture, but they were not perfect. What they did was repent, ask forgiveness and then let God use them despite their failures. They got back up. That should give all of us hope.

Failure overwhelms; fear overwhelms. But greater than either are the promises of God. They assure us that we will overcome. Further in Psalms 37, verses 39-40, we see this great reminder of God’s faithfulness, “But the salvation of the righteous is from the Lord; He is their strength in the time of trouble. And the Lord shall help them and deliver them; and save them because they trust in Him.”

What are you facing today? Is something overwhelming you? Is the enemy taunting you with a past failure? If so, stand firmly on the promises listed above. God is on your side. He wants you to win. He will not let you fall. He provides a hand to lift you back up and enables you to continue. Don’t stay down after a stumble. Get back up and in the race!