"But I am poor and needy;
yet the Lord thinketh upon me:
thou art my help and my deliverer;
make no tarrying, O my God."
-Psalms 40:17

Yesterday I shared with you about when I first learned to ride my bicycle.  Specifically, I shared about how I got a bit prideful as I lifted my hands off of the handle bars and yelled to my father, "Look dad, no hands!"

And, like I said, I took a fall.  Fell down flat onto the road I was riding on. 

What I didn't share was what happened next.

Having fallen onto the hard asphalt road in front of our house, I scraped myself up pretty badly.  And I, of course, began to cry almost immediately after I fell.  Partly it was because of the consequences of my pride, the HURT that I was feeling, and partly because of the embarassment of having bragged and then fallen on my face!

So, I'm laying down there in the road, crying, slightly bleeding, cut and bruised, feeling ashamed and guess who was immediately at my side?  My father.

And, here's the great thing about it.  My dad didn't laugh at me.  He didn't lecture me and say, "I told you so," or "you shouldn't have been so prideful."  And he didn't just leave me lying there.

He came immediately to my side, reached down his hands and picked me up.  He held me close and wiped the tears from my eyes.  He dusted me off and helped me back on my feet.  He said a simple, "Keep going, but don't do that again."

You see, mistakes or not, pride or not, foolishness or not, I'm his son.  And he loves me in spite of myself.

You know, we have that same kind of Father in our Heavenly Father, don't we?  Let's face it, we do some prideful things at times.  We make mistakes and act foolishly and get ourselves into all kinds of scrapes.  We find ourselves on our faces, spiritually cut and bruised from our sins and ashamed to even look towards God because we know we have done something that we shouldn't have.

And immediately our Father is at our side.  Christian, I'm telling you the truth, He reaches down His loving hands and picks us up.  He holds us close and wipes those stinging tears from our eyes.  Praise the Lord, His forgiveness dusts us off and helps us back on our feet.  And He sends us on our way by saying, "Keep going, but don't do that again."

Mistakes or not, pride or not, foolishness or not, we are His children.  And He most certainly loves us in spite of ourselves.

Christian, have you taken a fall lately because of pride?  Have you found yourself face down in the dirt, hurt and bruised because of sin?  Perhaps you are there, right now, laying around feeling defeated...

...look up.  And I'll tell you what you'll see.  You'll see a Father with His outstretched hands reaching for you.

He wants to clean you up and help you back on your feet.

Have a "Wonderful DAY in Christ,"
Jimmy D. Brown
\o/ Praise Jesus!