Tuesday... May it be so!

2 Thessalonians 3:5 (NIV), "May the Lord direct your hearts into God's love and Christ's perseverance."

This matter of perseverance is so important and Christ is a tremendous example, isn't he?

Let me ask you, how do you handle it when you fall?

Proverbs 24:16 (NIV) says, "For though the righteous fall seven times, they rise again, but the wicked stumbles when calamity strikes." Now perfectionism and perseverance don't go together. A perfectionist falls or makes a mistake or his plans don't go the way he wanted and it throws them completely off track. I can't fall, what is wrong with me? I am a failure. But a person with perseverance gets up, learns from the fall and heads out to face another day.

Now here is another picture of a perfectionist. Verses 17-18 says, "Don't rejoice when your enemies fall; don't be happy when they stumble. For the Lord will be displeased with you and will turn his anger away from them."

Of course with Jesus perseverance meant that when life didn't go the way he wanted it to go he still kept at it. He made no excuses. He didn't get down in the dumps. He handled it in a way that showed us how to handle life when it doesn't go the way we might want it to go. He persevered because he knew that his life was directed by God's love.

I know that when situations don't go the way we want or expect, it is so easy to bring out the feelings that we have blown it. There is no way that I have what it takes to live life and make a difference. I am a failure but when you see that God's love is there to pick you up and head you out into a new direction it makes such a difference.

Yes we can fall but we don't stay down, we get up and persevere. Let's not let our falling get us off track by discouraging us by our feeling like a failure.

Verse 16 in The Message says, "No matter how many times you trip them up, God-loyal people don't stay down long; soon they're up on their feet, while the wicked end up flat on their faces." By the way, if you might sin just confess your sin and ask him for forgiveness and he will forgive you and get you back on track.

Also verse 5 in 2 Thessalonians 3 in The Message says, "May the Master take you by the hand and lead you along the path of God's love and Christ's endurance." And in the Amplified Bible it says, "May the Lord direct your hearts into the love of God and into steadfastness and patience of Christ." He doesn't give up on us when we fall, he just reaches out to help us get up. Yes, yes! #todaysbeginning

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Todays Beginning

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