Charlie has been doing a science unit on the brain for the past few weeks and to be honest, I’ve been learning and relearning a lot of things myself. She just read an article about why our our foot falls asleep, and I was just in the mood to tune it out until God laid out a nice little sermon for me in that 3rd Grade Science Lesson.
We all know what happens when our foot falls asleep. We’ve been sitting on it for too long and then it goes numb, and sometimes it can feel really heavy. Then we stand back up again and we start to feel that tingle, that pins and needles feeling. But why does this happen? I’m quick to blame the blood supply. When we sit on our foot, we are cutting off that blood supply, but our foot falling asleep really has more to do with our nerves. The nerves in our body are like little phone lines that carry messages from our brain to the other parts of the body so we can function. When we sit on our foot, we are cutting off the blood supply, but we are also compressing those nerves and cutting off communication between our brain and our foot. The foot can’t hear the message from the brain, and the brain can’t talk to the foot. The phone line goes dead.
Isn’t that just like our relationship with God? I think about the times that I’ve sat too long in the pit of my sin or leaned so hard on my own understanding. It’s in those places and positions that the devil strikes. I go numb, and not only do my feet feel heavy, but every part of my life feels heavy, and in my despair I’m quick to blame the Blood. I can’t hear my Father, and think He’s forsaken me because I’ve cut off that line of communication. Instead of words that lift my head and soothe my soul, all I can hear is the devil’s lies that become louder the longer I sit.
He says things like,
“You can do it all on your own.”
“You don’t need God.”
” You know better. “
“You’re not worthy. “
“God is mad at you. “
And just like our phone line to our foot goes dead when it can’t hear messages from the brain, we sit dead in our sin when we’re stuck in our heads and hearts with the devil, and can’t hear the voice of our Father.
But there is good news! He never leaves us or forsakes us. He never stops trying to get His message to us that WE CAN STAND UP.
1 Corinthians 10:13 says, “God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that YOU CAN STAND UP UNDER IT.”
God will always give us a way out of our sin. We can stand up. And it might be uncomfortable at first. And it might hurt. We will feel that tingle and the pins and needles that prick and prune our hearts as we let go of who we were in our sin and become who God has created us to be in Him. But we will walk again. Maybe slow at first, and dragging some of those sins and hurts along behind us. But once we learn to let go and turn away from the things that drag us down into the pit, we can do more than walk with the Lord. We can run.
The end of Charlie’s article said, “Worried about your sleepy feet? You don’t need to be — everyone has a foot fall asleep once in a while, and it’s rare for it to mean there is something wrong in a kid’s body. If you want to keep your feet awake and kicking, don’t sit on them or put them in other positions where you’re squashing the nerves.”
I think we can remind ourselves of the same thing. Are we worried about falling down into our pits of sin and self? We don’t need to be when we keep our focus on Him- everyone has a fall once in a while, and it doesn’t mean God doesn’t see us or love us. But if we want to keep ourselves awake to the lies the devil tells us in our sin, then we need to stop putting ourselves in positions where we squash the voice of our Father.
“ Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.” – Hebrews 12:1-3
Fit Grit & Grace 