Matthew 21:28 What do you think? A man had two sons. He went to the first and said, ‘My son, go work in the vineyard today.’ 29 He answered and said, I will not: but afterward he repented, and went. 30 Then the man went to the other and said the same thing. ‘I will, sir,’ he answered, but he didn’t go.

      Our everyday walk with the Lord is a continual life of choices. What if we make the wrong choice and fall? Through Jesus, we repent and get up again. Our goal is not to run the perfect race, although that would be nice if it could be done, but our purpose is to complete the race that has been set before us through Christ our Lord. Heb. 12:1b Let us run with patience the race that is set before us, 2a looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith. With Jesus, we can finish what God saw us accomplishing in Him for our lives. Before the foundations of the world, God knew us and set out a plan of redemption that would give us eternal life and purpose in the Kingdom of God. Like the son in Matthew 21:29 who said he would not go to the vineyard to do what his father asked, but then repented and did his father’s will, we too have the free will to change our minds and obey our Heavenly Father. We too can get up again after falling on our faces.

      The  Word says that the righteous man falls but gets up again. Notice, it is a righteous man who fell. It is through the strength of God’s righteousness within us that empowers us to repent and get up again. Prov. 24:16 Though a righteous person falls seven times, he will get up, but the wicked will stumble into ruin. The wicked will stumble into the mess they keep making because there is no power of God’s righteousness at work within their hearts. We who are in Christ have been given the Lord’s righteousness to do the will of our God. Praise the Lord for the gift of a righteous life.

      The Apostle Paul was always looking ahead to the eternal prize God had for him, and not wallowing in the sins of the past. Phil. 3:13 Brothers and sisters, I do not regard myself as having taken hold of it yet; but one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead, 14 I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. Paul had fallen but got up again. He gives us an example of what the power of salvation can do in the heart of a person who has chosen the Lord Jesus as their saviour. Even if we fall, we can get up again and look toward the goodness of God for our lives.

      I am sure Satan came to Paul with all the accusations concerning the people he had sentenced to death before he encountered Jesus on the road to Damascus. Satan would have kept coming back to Paul with shouts of “You killed them with your religious zeal, and now you say you have wronged no man!” Paul understood the cleansing power and saving grace of the blood of Jesus. He could declare that he was the righteousness of God through Christ and nothing from his past could change God’s mind about the love God had for Paul. That must have burned Satan’s cookies to have the accusations he was throwing out at Paul come back and scorch Satan’s tongue. Isa. 54:17 “No weapon that is formed against you will succeed; and you will condemn every tongue that accuses you in judgment. This is the heritage of the servants of the LORD, and their vindication is from Me,” declares the LORD.

Like Paul, we all need to get up again when we fall and make sure we do it right away. The Lord says to come with confident boldness to receive mercy when we need it. Heb.4:16 Therefore let’s approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace for help at the time of our need. The amount of depression and loneliness that is in abundance throughout the world right now is because so many are not getting up again. They have accepted that their failures and inability to find hope of any kind are their lot in life. In many cases, this is the result of living a lawless life and making choices that are contrary to what God says is true and right. Many of them insisted on creating salvation on their terms and now the verdict is in. Their itchy ears and edgy choices have landed them in a lonely place. 2Tim. 4:3 For the time will come when people will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear.

      God will not bless your sins of choice, but He will forgive your sins if you repent of them and come home to the Father. The Lord will help you get up again if you want to. Like the son did in Matthew 21:29, you can also do. Matt. 21:29 He answered and said, I will not: but afterward he repented, and went. Yes, we can all get up again and continue the race that is ours to finish. We can all say as Paul says, “Forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead.” Our eternity in Christ lies ahead of us and we through Jesus have the confidence in the Lord to keep going because Jesus is the author and finisher of our faith. How good is that?