“Therefore strengthen your tired hands and weakened knees, and make straight paths for your feet, so that what is lame may not be dislocated but healed instead.” ‭‭Hebrews‬ ‭12:12-13‬ ‭HCSB‬‬

Because God will discipline His Kids, therefore strengthen your hands and knees. Make for yourselves straight paths for your feet to walk. So that your hands, knees, and feet will be healed and not broken and lame. 

You see God has a standard he wants every child to walk. And that standard is lived by Jesus, a perfect, holy, obedient life to Him. Now God extends His grace toward us while we are trying, but grace was never intended to be a crutch to lean on because of sin, but is a rope to grab hold of to pull us out of the muddy mess we have made our selves.

“I waited patiently for the Lord, and He turned to me and heard my cry for help. He brought me up from a desolate pit, out of the muddy clay, and set my feet on a rock, making my steps secure. He put a new song in my mouth, a hymn of praise to our God. Many will see and fear and put their trust in the Lord.”

‭‭Psalms‬ ‭40:1-3‬ ‭HCSB‬‬

https://www.bible.com/72/psa.40.1-3.hcsb

But when God sets our feet on the solid rock of Jesus and His Word, the Bible, it is our job to continue to walk in them. Will our spirit man always end on top? No, there will be times when we let our flesh win out and we will find ourselves in the mud again. But that is all the more reason to grab hold of the rope of Grace and get ourselves out of the mud and on to The Rock again. Because God still has a standard that he expects us to live up to, Jesus. 

When we see that there is a pattern that seems to happen when we slip and fall then we are to strengthen our resolve against that sin and strengthen our grip on the Word of God and strengthen our knees to say in prayer, “God I see this pattern in my life and I desire your word you have given me over this.” God will set before us a path that is straight and level. We must continue to take that path. If we do not God will continue to discipline and correct us. If we refuse to submit to the discipline and correction of God our hands will become tired, our knees will become weak and our feet will walk on unstable paths that will lead to our demise. 

“So then, my dear friends, just as you have always obeyed, not only in my presence, but now even more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.”

‭‭Philippians‬ ‭2:12‬ ‭HCSB‬‬

https://www.bible.com/72/php.2.12.hcsb

Often I think we work out our own salvation based on warm fuzzy pillows, but instead, we should be working it out on the hard floor of the alters we have built in our churches and homes.

“In those days Hezekiah became terminally ill. The prophet Isaiah son of Amoz came and said to him, “This is what the Lord says: ‘Put your affairs in order, for you are about to die; you will not recover.’ ” 

Then Hezekiah turned his face to the wall and prayed to the Lord, “Please Lord, remember how I have walked before You faithfully and wholeheartedly and have done what pleases You.” And Hezekiah wept bitterly. 

Isaiah had not yet gone out of the inner courtyard when the word of the Lord came to him: “Go back and tell Hezekiah, the leader of My people, ‘This is what the Lord God of your ancestor David says: I have heard your prayer; I have seen your tears. Look, I will heal you. On the third day from now you will go up to the Lord’s temple.”

‭‭2 Kings‬ ‭20:1-5‬ ‭HCSB‬‬

https://www.bible.com/72/2ki.20.1-5.hcsb

Hezekiah did not just lay down and die, but He wept bitterly and reminded God how he had lived for Him. And God added 15 years to his life. All too often we have just laid down to sin and given up the fight to resolve to live for God because it got too hard or we were too deep in our sins. I have good news for us. The rope of grace is extended to us and is waiting to pull us up out of our mud and on the rock of salvation once again. 

Moses spent 40 years with his father-in-law’s sheep because of his sin back in Egypt when he killed the Egyptian. 

“Looking all around and seeing no one, he struck the Egyptian dead and hid him in the sand.

When Pharaoh heard about this, he tried to kill Moses. But Moses fled from Pharaoh and went to live in the land of Midian, and sat down by a well.”

“Meanwhile, Moses was shepherding the flock of his father-in-law Jethro, the priest of Midian. He led the flock to the far side of the wilderness and came to Horeb, the mountain of God.”

‭‭Exodus‬ ‭2:12, 15‬, 3:1 ‭HCSB‬‬

https://www.bible.com/72/exo.2.12,15.hcsb

https://www.bible.com/72/exo.3.1.hcsb

We may not have 40 years left to hide from God in our work.

Jonah spent three days in the belly of a fish because of his sin.

“Now the Lord had appointed a huge fish to swallow Jonah, and Jonah was in the fish three days and three nights.”

‭‭Jonah‬ ‭1:17‬ ‭HCSB‬‬

https://www.bible.com/72/jon.1.17.hcsb

We may not have three days to wallow in our sins before God is ready to use us. Who knows maybe the nation of Ninevah would not have repented, but because of Jonah’s rebellion, God softened their hearts so that they did repent. 

Just like Jonah, Jesus spent three days in the earth not because of His sins but for ours to take back the keys of death and hell. So that We don’t have to go there.

“But He answered them, “An evil and adulterous generation demands a sign, but no sign will be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah. For as Jonah was in the belly of the huge fish three days and three nights, so the Son of Man will be in the heart of the earth three days and three nights.”

‭‭Matthew‬ ‭12:39-40‬ ‭HCSB‬‬

https://www.bible.com/72/mat.12.39-40.hcsb

“When I saw Him, I fell at His feet like a dead man. He laid His right hand on me and said, “Don’t be afraid! I am the First and the Last, and the Living One. I was dead, but look — I am alive forever and ever, and I hold the keys of death and Hades.”

‭‭Revelation‬ ‭1:17-18‬ ‭HCSB‬‬

https://www.bible.com/72/rev.1.17-18.hcsb

“A man’s heart plans his way, but the Lord determines his steps.”

‭‭Proverbs‬ ‭16:9‬ ‭HCSB‬‬

https://www.bible.com/72/pro.16.9.hcsb

“He guards the steps of His faithful ones, but the wicked perish in darkness, for a man does not prevail by his own strength. Those who oppose the Lord will be shattered; He will thunder in the heavens against them. The Lord will judge the ends of the earth. He will give power to His king; He will lift up the horn of His anointed.”

‭‭1 Samuel‬ ‭2:9-10‬ ‭HCSB‬‬

https://www.bible.com/72/1sa.2.9-10.hcsb

“A man’s steps are established by the Lord, and He takes pleasure in his way. Though he falls, he will not be overwhelmed, because the Lord holds his hand.”

‭‭Psalms‬ ‭37:23-24‬ ‭HCSB‬‬

https://www.bible.com/72/psa.37.23-24.hcsb

“But He looked at them and said, “Then what is the meaning of this Scripture: The stone that the builders rejected — this has become the cornerstone? Everyone who falls on that stone will be broken to pieces, and if it falls on anyone, it will grind him to powder! ”

‭‭Luke‬ ‭20:17-18‬ ‭HCSB‬‬

https://www.bible.com/72/luk.20.17-18.hcsb