What does it mean to get up and go? It sounds simple to do, but if you were once broken, getting back up is not always as easy as it sounds. So how do you get up and live the new life that God has called you to do?

I too was once broken down and forced to live a life with my bad past defining me. I could not erase my past mistakes, and thinking that many people would instantly define me as who I was did not give me any encouragement to get back up.

I felt trapped from being able to live a new life and pursue my calling from God. I had dreams of who I wanted to be, but believed that I could never rise up to any of my God-given dreams.

What finally revived and changed me was allowing Christ to come into my life and change me. I couldn’t change myself, but Christ could. I finally found someone who was able to take away my sin and erase all the shame – that person was Christ. But accepting Christ and his forgiveness was not enough to change me; I had to get up and go.

God will not lift yourself up for you; he will give you the power to get up, but it is up to you to take the initiative to get up and live a changed life. So how do we get up and go? It requires 3 things:

1. Faith in God

2. Let go of your old label with a new label from Christ

3. Stay up

When Jesus healed the laid man, he didn’t help the man get up. He told the laid man to get up and it was up to the laid man to take the initiative to get up and believe that he was healed. John 5:8 says, “Then Jesus said to him, “Get up! Pick up your matt and walk.” When we hear this story, it can be easy to picture the laid man getting up easily. But have you ever realized what it actually took for him to get up?

Faith In God

The laid man needed faith in Jesus to have the courage and power to get up and believe that Jesus healed him. Fear could have stopped him from getting up, but his faith in Jesus was greater.

We must do the same and get up as how the laid man did. For us to rise up to a new life requires us to have faith that God will carry us through our troubles and believe that he has a great plan ahead of us. Faith is what will give us the power of God to accomplish what God has inspired us to do.

Let Go of Your Old Label with a New Label

The laid man was known as the “laid man” in town for 38 years, and he had to live with such a label for so long. Before the laid man could be healed, he needed to let go of his old label as a “laid person” and claim his new label as a child of God.  He had to let go of who he knew he was, to who he wants to be in Christ. 

For me to move on to greater things in life also required me to let go of my past. I had to believe that I am no longer who I was, but a new person in Jesus Christ.

To get up means to forget who you were –  forget your past and believe that you are now a new child of Christ. Your past will only hold you back into the past, so let it go so that you can run the new race that God has set for you. Through Christ, you can rise up and become greater than who you were. Stay up and continue to accept God’s grace and healing for your new changed life. God doesn’t want to see you broken, he wants to heal you. 

Stay Up

God did not just tell the laid man to get up, he also told him to walk, and the only way to walk is to stay up.

If we do not stay up, we will never be able to walk the plan that God has for us. The only way to see God’s miraculous power in our lives is to walk it through. If the laid man never chose to walk and go, he would never have seen Jesus’s healing power on his life.

To see God’s amazing plans happen in your life requires you to walk in in until the end. Don’t give up on God; have faith that God has prepared an amazing plan ahead of you. Ephesians 2:10 says, “For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago.”

My past was not at all perfect and good, but getting up and doing what God has called me to do has opened the door to a new life for me. My past has not stopped me from changing and living a life to glorify God.

Don’t let your bad past block the good future that God has planned for you. Your bad can be turned and used for the good; it has been God’s plan from the day he made you. Accept Christ and know that you are his beloved Child.

We all have a great future ahead of us, and as long as we have faith in God and know that we are his child and masterpiece, we can stand up to finish the good works that he has planned for us. So remember, get up and go.