This morning, just after dawn, when I was about halfway down the steps of our treehouse, I slipped. I was wearing rubber boots because the grass was wet, and the night’s rain had made the steps wet as well.
My right foot slipped forward off the edge of the step, and I began to slide into kind-of doing the splits (my left leg bending and my right leg pointing straight out/down), sliding down the stairs. I’m sure it looked awkward, but I didn’t have time to be embarrassed; I hardly had time to even worry before my right foot landed with a thud and stayed put.
The first thing I did was whisper a praise to the Lord! (It was still pretty early, and my neighbor has kids.) But as I checked myself for damage (my right arm pressed hard against the railing, my left knee compressed, etc.) and realized there was none, my wonder increased.
This isn’t my first time down the stairs, y’all. I slipped a year or two ago the same way, on a different set of stairs, and landed square on my back. I was impressed at the width of the bruise I generated! But despite the magnificent bruise, I never broke or sprained anything.
I thought about how difficult it is to change direction in mid-fall. It all happens so fast. It’s kind of like what happens when your car starts to slide on the road. It’s not very likely that you will recover once the slide starts.
But nothing happens by accident. And right on the heels of that thought, the phrase “He will keep your foot from falling” came into my head. I thought it was a verse, but couldn’t remember the reference.
I began to search and found the following:
“The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord: and he delighteth in his way. Though he fall, he shall not be utterly cast down: for the Lord upholdeth him with his hand.” Psalm 37:23-24
“For thou hast delivered my soul from death: Wilt thou not deliver my feet from falling, that I may walk before God in the light of the living?” Psalm 56:13
“O bless our God, ye people, and make the voice of his praise to be heard: Which holdeth our soul in life, and suffereth not our feet to be moved.” Psalm 66:8-9
“He [the Lord] will keep the feet of his saints, and the wicked will be silent in darkness; for by strength shall no man prevail.” 1 Samuel 2:9
“Thou has enlarged my steps under me, that my feet did not slip.” Psalm 18:36
“Because thou hast made the Lord. . .thy habitation: There shall no evil befall thee, neither shall any plague come nigh thy dwelling. For he shall give his angels charge over thee, to keep thee in all thy ways. They shall bear thee up in their hands, lest thou dash thy foot against a stone.” Psalm 91: 9-12
“When I said, My foot slippeth; thy mercy, O Lord, held me up.” Psalms 94:18
“He will not suffer thy foot to be moved: he that keepeth thee will neither slumber nor sleep.” Psalms 121:3
“For the Lord shall be thy confidence, and shall keep thy foot from being taken.” Proverbs 3:26
“For thou has delivered my soul from death, mine eyes from tears, and my feet from falling.” Psalms 116:8
Bing!
I was amazed at the number of verses I found that spoke of feet being held in place or kept from falling, before I found the right one. And as I thought about it, I realized that there were a lot of other concepts entwined with the ideas of being held firm, and not falling.
Falling is a metaphor for dying, for choosing to sin, for being ambushed, or for failing (among other things). But whether the problem is falling physically down the stairs, or falling in one of the other ways, the result is the same: If you belong to the Lord, he will protect you.
Does it mean that you will never actually fall? No. I have fallen many times, usually over something I left in the wrong place. Or sometimes I fall over Goldie, our brick-like dog. But when I do fall, God protects me from serious damage because I belong to him and he is responsible for me.
“The Lord will be your confidence,” Proverbs says. “You will not be moved,” it says in the Psalms. We will be under the protection of God’s angels. Why? Because we have made the Lord our habitation.
What does that mean? How can we live inside God? Jesus helped us understand what “making the Lord our habitation” means. He said,
“If a man love me, he will keep my words: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him.” (John 14:23)
If we love Jesus, he will come live with us. We love Jesus by “keeping his words.” There are a lot of words that Jesus said in the New Testament, but he summed up all of his commands in this way: “Love God with all your heart, soul and mind, and love your neighbor as yourself.” (Matthew 22:36 – 40)
True love, as God loves, is defined in 1 Corinthians 13:4-7:
“Love suffers long, and is kind; love envies not; love vaunts not itself, is not puffed up. Does not behave itself unseemly, seeks not her own, is not easily provoked, thinks no evil; rejoices not in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails. . .”
Loving the way God loves is very hard if we try to do it in our own strength. But remember the verse in 1 Samuel 2:9, above “for by strength shall no man prevail.” Our own strength isn’t enough, and God understands that.
When we believe in Jesus, he fills us with his love. Then we begin to see other people through Jesus’ eyes, loving them in a way we couldn’t before. God gives us power so that we can love the way he does when we believe in him. Loving others starts to come naturally because God lives in us and He is Love.
Do you know him?
The Lord says, “Yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting love: therefore with loving-kindness have I drawn thee.” Jeremiah 31:3
If you haven’t met him yet, just call out: He is already listening for you.
“My little children, let us not love in word, neither in tongue; but in deed and in truth.” (1 John 3:18)
The Fullers Four 