“Now to Him who is able to keep you from stumbling…” — Jude 24
At first glance, that verse almost sounds impossible.
Because if we’re honest, we’ve all stumbled.
We’ve said things we wish we could take back. We’ve made decisions we regret. We’ve walked through seasons that left us wondering if we’d ever feel normal again. Sometimes it’s our own mistakes that knock us down. Sometimes life blindsides us with circumstances we never saw coming.
Either way, we’ve all hit the ground.
Then Proverbs gives us this incredible picture:
“For though the righteous fall seven times, they rise again, but the wicked stumble when calamity strikes.” — Proverbs 24:16
Notice what it doesn’t say.
It doesn’t say the righteous never fall.
It says they get back up.
That’s one of the greatest misconceptions about following God. We tend to think righteous people have somehow mastered life. They don’t struggle. They don’t fail. They don’t have moments where everything feels upside down.
But Scripture paints a different picture.
The righteous fall.
They just don’t stay there.
Why?
Because their confidence isn’t in their ability to maintain perfect balance. Their confidence is in the God who refuses to let them stay down.
Jude doesn’t praise our grip on God.
He praises God’s grip on us.
“Now to Him who is able to keep you from stumbling…”
That doesn’t mean you’ll never have moments where your knees buckle. It means God is stronger than whatever is trying to keep you on the ground.
I’ve always loved Captain America’s line:
“I can do this all day.”
That’s the picture I have of the righteous—not because they’re naturally tougher than everyone else, but because every time life knocks them down, God gives them the strength to stand one more time.
They get up after failure.
They get up after disappointment.
They get up after betrayal.
They get up after loss.
They get up after grief.
They get up after they’ve embarrassed themselves.
Not because they’re stubborn.
Because God is faithful.
The difference between the righteous and the wicked isn’t that one never falls.
The difference is what happens after the fall.
The wicked stay where they landed because they trust in themselves, their circumstances, or their own strength. When those things fail, they have nowhere else to turn.
The righteous have Someone to lean on.
Every time.
Eventually, wickedness collapses under its own weight. Evil always defeats itself. But those who belong to God continue to rise—not because they’re stronger than evil, but because the One who holds them is stronger than anything that tries to hold them down.
So if you’ve fallen…
Get back up.
If you’ve failed…
Get back up.
If life has thrown you for a loop…
Get back up.
Not because you have to prove how strong you are.
Get back up because your Father is still holding you.
Because it’s never been about your ability to keep your balance—it’s always been about His ability to keep you.
phillipbrande.com 