When You’re the Most Vulnerable

Sometimes those who have known the Lord for a while are more vulnerable to falling into sin than those who are brand-new believers. When you’re a brand-new believer, you tend to realize that you are weak and vulnerable. New believers think, I need help. I need prayer. I need to be around other Christians. I need to be in church.

But when you have known the Lord for ten, twenty, thirty, or forty years or longer, you might think, I am so strong now. I would never fall to that. How could anyone fall to a sin like that? But suddenly your unguarded strength becomes a double weakness.

On the night of His betrayal, Jesus told the disciples, "Tonight all of you will desert me. For the Scriptures say, ‘God will strike the Shepherd, and the sheep of the flock will be scattered’ " (Matthew 26:31).

But Peter protested, "Even if everyone else deserts you, I will never desert you" (verse 33).

Jesus told him, "I tell you the truth, Peter—this very night, before the rooster crows, you will deny three times that you even know me" (verse 34).

But Peter said, "Even if I have to die with you, I will never deny you!" (verse 35). Peter was essentially saying, "Lord, you’ve got it wrong. You are talking to Peter here. I would never fall."

The Bible says, "Pride goes before destruction, and haughtiness before a fall." Don’t say that you would never fall. And don’t ever say, "I could fall in some areas, but I would never fall in this area." You could fall in that area too. Any of us could fall into sin at any time. That is why we can never rest on our laurels or think that we are somehow above it all.