Rise!

Micah 7:8-9

⁸ Do not rejoice over me, my enemy!

Though I have fallen, I will stand up;

though I sit in darkness,

the LORD will be my light.

⁹ Because I have sinned against Him,

I must endure the LORD’s rage

until He argues my case

and establishes justice for me.

He will bring me into the light;

I will see His salvation.

There is a song that goes like this: “I may be down, but I will rise.” Those words must have come from verse 8. We have all been there—flat on our backs, either because the enemy has put us there or our sin has put us there. But the good news is always that we do not have to stay there. We may sit in darkness for a time. We read the Word and get nothing. Our prayers seem to be doing no good. We seem to be making no progress in our spiritual lives. But the Lord is gracious. We may be down, but we will rise. The Lord’s light will shine on us again.

I had a football coach in High School named Ira Smith. He told us once: “Boys, there’s no shame in getting knocked on your backside playing this game. It’s a contact game. Twenty-two guys running around in pads determined to knock each other down. Your time will come when someone will do it to you. It’s part of the game. There’s no shame getting knocked down, but there is shame in not getting back up.”

I’ve never forgotten that. Christianity is a contact sport. We have an adversary who is constantly trying to knock us on our backside. There are times he will succeed. We also have a thing called “the flesh” that will get the best of us from time to time. it got the best of even so eminent a one as the Apostle Paul (Romans 7). There is no shame in getting knocked down, but there is great shame in lying there. We have a great Savior who is always ready to pick us up. We may get knocked down even today… but we can rise!