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Solomon wrote in Ecclesiastes 4:10: “If either of them falls down, one can help the other up. But pity anyone who falls and has no one to help them up.” There have been many times when I’ve fallen down and needed a friend to help me back up, how about you?
If I’m a good friend, I’m going to be doing everything I can to help someone who has stumbled and failed. Failures are so painful, and when we’ve really made a fool out of ourselves, in big or small ways, we just want to quit and hide. But a good friend will come along and say, “Here, let me help you. You can get up again. Sure, you’ve fallen but it’s not the end of the road. I’ve fallen myself plenty of times. Let me help you keep going.”
Good friends don’t lay condemnation or criticism or guilt on others; rather they pour healing ointments on the hurting places. I’m not saying that we ignore sin or give approval to what we know is wrong in another’s life. But when that person has fallen and they’re having trouble getting up, the last thing they need is to be told how terrible their fall was. They know that. They need a friend to help them up.
I spent ten years walking away from the Lord—ten long years doing my own thing and living a selfish, sinful life. But when I came back to the Lord, there were many who were there to help me up. Particularly I think of my close friends, Fran and Dick, who had been my friends through those awful years and had watched me stumble and fall. But never once did they remind me of the failures; they were just there to help me get up and put the past behind me, and to move on with the Lord.
Who is it in your life right now that needs that kind of helping hand? Who has failed badly? Have you told them, “I’m here for you; this is not fatal; God can restore you.” If you know someone like that, will you be a good friend today and help them up?
Maybe you’ve just fallen down and no one is coming along to help you up. Can I be that friend to you today, to encourage you to know that you just can’t mess things up so badly that God can’t restore you.