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Stumble Insurance

by Jerry Ousley
12/01/2023 / Christian Living

Stumble Insurance

By Jerry D. Ousley

What a magnificent steed! I had gone home after church service with a buddy. He had this beautiful horse, sleek, brown – very handsome specimen of a horse. He rode like an expert. I, on the other hand, had very little experience on horseback. But I didn’t want my buddy to know that. Afterall, I had watched hours of western movies. They all rode horses and I had studied each and every one. It didn’t look that hard at all. So, when he asked me if I knew how to ride, I responded, “Of course. I love riding.” It wasn’t exactly to whole truth.

I put one foot in the stirrup and lifted myself up into the saddle. It felt good and I thought to myself, “I’m a natural.” I felt I was one with the horse. We began walking, then trotting and I urged him on to an all out run. Everything was going great when all of a sudden, the horse stumbled, his head went down and I went over. He fell. What had happened? My buddy ran to me and asked if I was okay, then examined the hoof of his horse. Thankfully it was okay. The horse had stepped in a hole and put him and his “expert” rider on the ground! Perhaps I wasn’t such an expert rider after all!

I’m not certain what I could have done to keep the horse from stumbling, but the Bible tells us what we can do to keep us from stumbling in our Christian walk. Peter wrote, “But also for this very reason, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue, to virtue knowledge, to knowledge self-control, to self-control perseverance, to perseverance godliness, to godliness brotherly kindness, and to brotherly kindness love. For if these things are yours and abound, you will be neither barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. For he who lacks these things is shortsighted, even to blindness, and has forgotten that he was cleansed from his old sins. Therefore, brethren, be even more diligent to make your call and election sure, for if you do these things, you will never stumble; for so an entrance will be supplied to you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.” (2 Peter 1:5-11).

Could it really be that simple? We know that our salvation is by grace, and faith in what our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, has done for us. His crucifixion paid the penalty for our sin, and His resurrection conquered death on our behalf. There is nothing we can do to earn our salvation except to believe what He has done for us. When we believe in our hearts that He died for us and rose again and that we rose with Him, we are saved.

But salvation does not keep us from being tempted to sin and often we give in and yield to it. Oh, come on now, I know that I do and I know that you do too. Our salvation may make us righteous because of the covering of Jesus’ blood, but it does not make us perfect in our flesh. We are still tempted and we sometimes give in.

That’s where the things Peter wrote of comes in to play. When we add these things in our lives, they don’t make us a better Christian than someone else. They aren’t added to boast of “look what I have done!” But they do help us to become stronger in our resistance to sin.

The first is virtue, which is goodness, or also morality. The original Greek word could also be translated as “valor.” We are brave in our Christian stance and we value morals as outlined in the Bible. Again, they don’t make us better than another Christian but they are good qualities to have in our walk with Christ.

Then there is knowledge. The knowledge we need is not worldly knowledge but knowledge of what God wants in our lives and one of the best ways to learn is by reading and studying the Bible. As we grow in the knowledge of God, we are able to stand stronger against those temptations.

Self-control is next. As a believer we need to learn to not allow those basic, sinful, carnal instincts to overcome us. We resist by turning to God. We stand firm by claiming what we have learned and with the virtue and valor we gain in our Christian experience. As we do, we can better resist and have control over ourselves.

Then we have perseverance. This means that we are persistent in our resistance. We take on a little “righteous stubbornness” not giving in and standing strong despite what the devil hurls our way. It is easier to give in. But when we stand strong and persevere then we become stronger in the Lord each time we do it.

Next is godliness. This means to be like God. Now we know that we will never be like God in our human form and in this body of flesh. But we can resist by standing strong, knowing that the Holy Spirit within us is greater than he that rages with the onslaught of temptation. John wrote, “You are of God, little children, and have overcome them, because He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world.” (1 John 4:4). The Holy Spirit in us is God Himself in the form of the Holy Spirit. He is much greater than the devil (he who is in the world). Because of Him we can become more and more like God. But be careful that we don’t start to feel that we are God.

We also add brotherly kindness. That is being kind to those around us and those we come into contact with. We might have to swallow some pride in doing this because everyone we meet isn’t going to be kind to us. But that doesn’t give us the right to not be kind to them.

And finally, we add love. Not just an empty “I love you” mind you, but love that is shown by action. When we love we love with deeds. The old King James Version often used the word “charity” in place of “love.” I like that because charity is love in action. Not that we are to look down on others in pity, but that we look across on level ground, knowing that we are all equal in Christ Jesus, and we love with our actions.

Now that’s a lot to do and a load of responsibility. Maybe that’s what Peter was getting at. He said if we add these things to our Christian walk that we would never stumble. I suppose that’s because in doing all these things we don’t have much time for temptation and we don’t think about stumbling. We are too busy to do otherwise! It’s like stumble insurance.

Jerry D. Ousley is the author of ?Soul Challenge?, ?Soul Journey?, ?Ordeal?, ?The Spirit Bread Daily Devotional and his first novel ?The Shoe Tree.? Visit our website at spiritbread.com to download these and more completely free of charge.

Article Source: http://www.faithwriters.com-CHRISTIAN WRITERS

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