Initiative and mistakes along the way...

Then He came to the disciples and said to them, “Are you still sleeping and resting? Behold, the hour is at hand and the Son of Man is being betrayed into the hands of sinners. Get up, let us be going; behold, the one who betrays Me is at hand!”--Matthew 26:45-46.  For me this is one of the saddest moments of Christ's relationship with His disciples.  Jesus made a simple request for them to keep watch while He went and prayed as these were the last few hours before Christ would be crucified.  Jesus, He whom the apostles had followed and grown to love and believe in was about to be seized and ultimately killed.  This is when they should have been on their toes. but what were they doing? Sleeping.  This happened 3 times before Jesus makes this statement. But what does Jesus do? Rather than reprimanding them a third time, He simply says "Let us be going."

Arise and let us be going.  We look at this situation and probably ask what the disciples were thinking falling asleep when our Master's life on earth would end in only a matter of hours.  They made a mistake.  We have to remember while these apostles were great men, they were human beings just like you and me.  They made mistakes, Peter probably more than the others but Peter still became a great man of God despite his frailties.

My point is in our walk with God, we are going to make mistakes.  When I say mistakes I don't necessarily mean just sins although sins are included in the statement.  There are going to be times when we are going to blow it.  I look back and I have lost count of how many mistakes I have made in my walk with God.  I hate looking back and realizing the opportunities I have blown with others due to my own frailties.

So what does this have to do with initiative?  Well when we make those mistakes, we have to take the INITIATIVE to learn from those mistakes.  Learn from those mistakes, pick up and just keep trucking.  If you learn from your errors in judgment, rather than dwelling on them, I guarantee your relationship with God and with others will only get stronger.   Mistakes might knock us down but we have to make a choice to get back up.  So, when you make a mistake take the initiative to learn from it and tell yourself what Jesus told His disciples, "Get up and let us be going."