What if I Stumble?

I’d like you to close your eyes and picture this image: Picture a valley that runs through a small set of big hills or tiny mountains. The valley is lush and plentiful; the mountains frame the valley. From atop the mountains you can see miles and miles of winding valley. Through it you can see a group of shepherds moving their flock through the valley. There are shepherds among the flock actively herding moving the sheep through the valley based on the directions from the shepherd who is walking across the top of the hills; surveying the whole flock and providing guidance as to the way the shepherds in the valley should go.

I’ve heard it said in the past that God uses people… just like the shepherds; some to be in the valley actively herding and caring for the flocks and others walk across the mountain tops; keeping watch and point others in the direction they should go. The shepherds in the valley; those focused on flock look to the mountain tops for direction. The difference between the two shepherds might be that the one on the mountain tops; he probably has some formal degree from the Shepherding Sheep University… sometimes he distances himself from the sheep themselves… each shepherd has his role after all. His role is to be higher than the others, to be seen, and to give direction. I’ve always been told I’m the guy in the valley. I work well with the sheep and the sheep work well with me. I work hard and am not afraid to get my hands dirty.

However, there are some serious problems with this model…
• If they the shepherd slips off the mountain top… the flock of sheep are lost in wilderness
• The shepherds walking the mountain tops are looked at with awe, they receive undo praise; they are in fact “high and lifted up”.
• The pressure on those on the mountain tops is surely too much for them to bare.

I’ve been the guy in the valley, I’ve looked to the men at the tops of the mountains… many times giving them the praises that belong to God alone. I’ve seen many crack under the pressure and several have fallen. I’ve even climbed up the mountain to steady the others and lead the way myself… only to fall. But you know what? Unlike Humpty Dumpty, my King not only put me back together again, but My King says now that you’re broken I can finally use you. God’s word is full of examples where my King chooses the broken, the misfit, the lowly, and the sludge at the bottom of the barrel, the whore, murderer, and persecutors of God Himself.

Feeling unworthy? Feeling unusable? Feeling like you have no clue as to why God would even consider putting you on His team? Let’s look at David for a moment remembering God’s testimony of him in Acts:

After removing Saul, he made David their king. God testified concerning him: ‘I have found David son of Jesse, a man after my own heart; he will do everything I want him to do’. (Acts 13:22 NIV)

Today’s scripture:

One evening David got up from his bed and walked around on the roof of the palace. From the roof he saw a woman bathing. The woman was very beautiful, and David sent someone to find out about her. The man said, “She is Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam and the wife of Uriah the Hittite.” Then David sent messengers to get her. She came to him, and he slept with her. (Now she was purifying herself from her monthly uncleanness.) Then she went back home. The woman conceived and sent word to David, saying, “I am pregnant.” (2 Samuel 11:2-5)

Obviously, God did not instruct David to commit adultery. And I am not suggesting that you follow David’s specific actions here, nor I’m not discounting the consequences of sin; but I do want to draw out the realization David too was unworthy; he was an adulterer (2 Samuel 11:2-5) and a murderer (2 Samuel 11:14-17). Yet, as foreseen in the Covenant God made with David in 2 Samuel 7; it is through David’s line that our ultimate King Jesus comes!

So as we seek after God’s own heart, may we always remember that we have a merciful God. May we always remember that when we confess our sin that He is faithful and just to forgive us (1 John 1:9). May we always remember that He is Faithful and keeps His promise to complete in us what He has started (Philippians 1:6).

Once you’ve confessed, don’t let the sins of your past hold you down. God not only forgave you, but He no longer remembers your sin! (Isaiah 43:25)