S06E010, When You Stumble and Fall, Endurance

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Nathan and Steven are back! In this episode of Endurance, they are looking at what to do when you make a mistake.

Endurance is your weekly spiritual workout, whether you think of yourself as a beginner, an intermediate, or advanced!

#GoDeeper
Steven begins by reminding us of the obvious truth that we are human and therefore make mistakes. With that in mind, we need to know what to do when we make a mistake. He goes on to relate what one would do if they fell during a race.

When looking for appropriate Scriptures, he realised that repentance is the key to getting back up after making a mistake. Repentance is simple acknowledging where we went wrong and apologising to all those affected, first and foremost God.

He points out that often the consequences of our mistakes don’t show themselves until later. We need to deal with those consequences as they come along.

Steven also touches on preventing certain mistakes.

#GoDo
Nathan and Steven further develop some salient points made in GoDeeper:

1. We can’t recover when we stumble or fall until we accept it.
2. It’s really comforting to know that even if we stumble, God doesn’t give up on us.

Steven and Nathan

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[00:00:00] Nathan: Hello my name is Nathan, and this is Endurance your weekly spiritual workout. So, get ready for some tough spiritual exercise. This week's episode is titled When You Stumble and Fall, and we're asking questions such as, what do you do when you stumble? How do you recover from a fall either in your physical life or spiritual life?

[00:00:42] Obviously we are human, so we will make mistakes, we will stumble and we will fall. And obviously you might be tripped up by others too, but what do we do when that happens? Well, Steven's gonna be along in a moment to help us understand this, and he's referring to Acts, Isaiah and 1 John. So sit back [00:01:00] and enjoy.

[00:01:03] You can't win if you are not willing to lose. #Speaktruth

[00:01:14] Andy B: Two minutes a day can change your world and in Just a Thought that's kind of what I do. Because I take the ordinary moments of life and think, how can this apply to faith? To life? To moving through this world with people around us? How can a tiny spider or the handle of a microwavable rice pot affect our life. And how can it help us learn something about ourselves and the world around us? 

[00:01:39] So here's what I thought. Have you ever wondered what red flags, shredded tires, persistence, holes, dishwater tea, rice maker handles, tape measures, giant spiders that are not and stripey fabric all have in common. Well you are not alone.

[00:01:53] And they actually link wonderfully together, as you will find out in the book. I'm just gonna read this out from [00:02:00] Reverend Johnny Douglas who wrote the forward very kindly for me. Just a thought is a collection of pregnant brain thoughts, but it's so much more than this. Andy reflects a determination, character and grasp of God and his loving purpose and wise ways. 

[00:02:12] As we go through life. There's all these things that go on. There's all these exciting things of life, but actually it's the ordinary and it's the normal from which we can learn so, so much. Each little chapter will take you a few moments to read, but hopefully we'll get your brain working and ready for the day. Just a thought.

[00:02:51] Steven: So we're back for endurance as Nathan wonderfully introduced us, and here we are to go deeper into the subject, which is what to do when you stumble and when you fall. [00:03:00] Cause at the end of the day, We are people, we're humans, and we're gonna make mistakes. We're gonna make lots of mistakes. We've already made plenty.

[00:03:06] But how do we deal with those mistakes? How do we get back up from those mistakes? And that is what we're looking at. So in exercise, if you were to run a race and you were to stumble during it, You'd have to do a few things. You'd have to accept that you've fallen and like stop running. You couldn't be running even though you've fallen.

[00:03:26] It's pretty obvious that you've fallen and you would obviously stop running. But it is a step. You would probably check yourself for injuries. Though they're probably not gonna show immediately. But if you had like a major injury that would stop you running, you'd stop and then you'd get back up and you would get back into the race.

[00:03:42] Perhaps a bit further behind, but it is what it is. You have to sort of accept things. That's a big part of making a mistake. You have to accept that it's gone wrong, but make the best of it. Yeah. 

[00:03:55] So I looked up for scriptures to do with making mistakes. It's an obvious thing. You [00:04:00] can Google what scriptures are best for certain subjects. It's a little cheat I use. And it immediately came up with lots about repentance and clearly that is the biggest step in when you stumble and fall like I just did. So the first one came up was Acts 3:19, Therefore repent and turn back so that your sins may be wiped out. So repent, that's like a huge, important piece of this.

[00:04:28] And repentance is basically acknowledging that you made a mistake and apologizing for it to anyone involved, first and foremost, God. 1 John 1:9 says something very similar, If we confess our sins, he is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. So we can go to God, we can confess our sins and he will wash them away because he is faithful.

[00:04:50] So when you make a mistake, when you stumble, I did it [00:05:00] actually just yesterday. No today. I was supposed to plan for this talk like ages ago. I had it all prepped out, had the title written down, but I didn't. And I had to do it last minute, like five minutes ago. And that was a mistake and I had to get back from it.

[00:05:18] So when you make a mistake, the first thing you do is repent. You need to go to God and say, I've made a mistake, and you need to apologise you need to apologise to anyone involved. And you need to get on with your life. You need to get back to doing what you need to do. But sometimes there are consequences. So if you make a mistake, you gonna hurt other people.

[00:05:36] Those consequences are gonna be there and they're not necessarily gonna show up immediately. This is true. If you're running, you injure yourself. They don't usually show that moment. Usually feel the injury the next day delayed something, muscle soreness or something. Sads, I think it's called. Yeah. So it'll come later.

[00:05:52] And those consequences from our mistakes are often a little bit delayed. People who've been hurt by our mistake and whatnot. And we have to deal with those [00:06:00] consequences. Perhaps that should be another Endurance. But at the end of the day, prevention is better than cure.

[00:06:10] Yeah, it is. Trust me, prevention is better than cure. We need to prevent ourselves from making those mistakes. So the, the scriptures about avoiding temptation. God will help us to deal with temptations as and when they come, if we turn to him, so we can avoid making those mistakes in the first place. I have some scripture on that.

[00:06:28] So Isaiah 40:31, sorry. Isaiah 40:30-31, Youths may become faint and weary and young men stumble and fall, but those who trust in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles, they will run and not become weary. They will walk and not faint. So to prevent ourselves from stumbling and falling, we should put our trust in the Lord and renew our strength.

[00:06:55] And we will soar on wings like eagles and not sin. So if you make [00:07:00] a mistake, first thing's first. You need to repent, you need to turn to God, apologize to anyone involved and then deal with those consequences. That is when you stumble and fall.

[00:07:20] Jo: Family prayer time. So what is it, Peter? 

[00:07:24] Peter: Well, it's where me and Mum or well Jo we look at, we find a subject for a prayer, so maybe the Psalm or a country. And then we pray as we feel led and bob's your uncle. 

[00:07:36] Jo: Excellent. Yeah, absolutely. It's family prayer time. Me and Pete pray together and we'd like you to pray as a family. So join us for family prayer time.[00:08:00] 

[00:08:05] Nathan: Very good talk, Steven. Been a little while, hasn't it? We've had a break, so I think, I think you did a very good job. 

[00:08:10] Steven: Yeah. Trying to get back into the swing of it without stumbling and falling. 

[00:08:14] Nathan: Yes, indeed. Very clever. 

[00:08:17] Steven: Funny, I should mention that. 

[00:08:18] Nathan: Yeah. Funny. Yeah, funny you should mention that. We've been talking about stumbling and falling and what we do when we stumble and fall.

[00:08:25] So I thought you made some good points. One of them was we can't recover from a stumble or a fall until we accept it. 

[00:08:32] Steven: Yeah. It's a big part of Endurance. We mentioned it a lot. We need to accept what is. You can't keep running even though you're flat on your face. You've gotta accept that you've fallen down and therefore get back up again.

[00:08:44] Nathan: Yeah, it's really important that you accept something. That's the first step on the road to recovery. I mean, it seems like a bit of a, a cliche, but It's true. 

[00:08:51] Steven: It is very true. 

[00:08:53] Nathan: Yeah. And you know, it's really comforting to know that even when stumble and fall, God doesn't give up on us, [00:09:00] which you mentioned, you know, God forgives us.

[00:09:03] He helps us back up and he's, he's, he's more upset when we, when we don't even bother running for fear of, of stumbling or falling. It's better to stumble and fall because then we learn from our mistakes and we get stronger. 

[00:09:15] Steven: Yeah. Mistakes we learn from them. Or if you don't choose to learn from a mistake, then you're not gonna learn from it.

[00:09:23] Nathan: Well, yes, but, but the point is, even when we make mistakes, even when we stumble and fall, God helps back up again and we can keep running. And that's really encouraging that there's an encouraging thought. 

[00:09:37] Yeah. So a very good talk. It's important to know even when you stumble a fall, you don't need to give up. Just keep going. God will help you. And as I like what you mentioned about Isaiah, we will, we'll fly on wings like eagles. We will soar and we will run a not grow faint. 

[00:09:54] Steven: Not grow faint. Yep. 

[00:09:55] Nathan: When we run in God's strength yeah. So even when you stumble or [00:10:00] fall, don't give up and God will give you the strength to carry on.