Concerning students…

Well, we are all now halfway through the semester, my friends. We have our supplies (most of us), we have our determined spirits, we want to finish, but do we have our faith? We just had a whole summer to ourselves, away from our friends, but did we keep our faith? Did we serve the Lord with all our hearts and determine to stay on the course that God wants us to be on? or

Did we slack a little?

Did we trip up?

Did we fall and not get back up?

Many students in today’s world go our whole summers wanting to “be to self” or “I just want to be alone.” God doesn’t want us to take a break. He doesn’t want us to put up the towel and say, “All right, I’m done now, time to quit.” God doesn’t want us to quit. Now, we may have days where we to sit down and rest, but that is not what I’m referring to. I am talking about the times when we mess up or we slip back into our sins because we decided to turn our eyes off of God, but we didn’t get back up.

Let’s recall Peter and Judas, shall we? Remember when Jesus told Peter that he would deny Him three times and Peter said he wouldn’t ever do that? Well we all know the story. Peter denied Jesus the three times. But Jesus said that someone would betray Jesus. This was Judas. Judas betrayed Jesus for some money. You ask me, “What are you getting at, Daniel?” What I’m trying to say is that Peter got back up! Even though Peter fell three times and Judas once, Peter still was determined to serve Jesus.

So when you're feeling the heat, or when you are just overwhelmed and fall, get back up! Don’t be a Judas and stay down,

Be a Peter! Dare to Strive Towards the Mark!

Yes, I know it is hard. Yes, the fall hurts. Yes, you regret much, but don’t stay in the mud and quit. Get back up!

One morning, I was running cross country. I am not one of the good runners, in fact, I am pretty slow. I was running behind with a couple others and coach told us to only run a quarter more because we were exhausted. I had put the idea in my head that I would finish that lap. I took some deep breaths, and started to sprint my last lap. I had passed up that last people and nearly caught up with the front runners, but before I finished that lap, just ten yards away, I fell. My body was in much pain, and didn’t want to get back up.

I determined myself to get back up. I took some deep breaths, stood up, and tried to hold my balance. I finished the lap. I didn’t hold back like coach had said. But the point of this was not that I finished more than coach had said. The point is that when I fell, I was determined to get back up and I did.

So final words, don’t stay down in the pit.

Don’t let your worst sins get the best of you.

Reach out to Jesus and get back up!

Dare to Strive Towards the Mark that God has given you!