Stand Up Again
The Jordan River is everywhere in the Bible. It is often used as a symbol from God to cross over and move to something new—to receiving a promise. In the Old Testament, when it was time for Israel to receive the land God promised his people, they needed to carefully follow his presence since they’d never been that way before (see Josh. 3:4). He led them straight to the edge of the Jordan River—at flood stage. God instructed them to walk right into the rising waters. It wasn’t until they were standing in the flood that he took them miraculously to the other side. God was never going to abandon them there. He wanted their trust. He wanted them to come to him even in the flood. He wanted them to hear his Word. He wanted them to follow his way out.
He wants that for you too. Sometimes the flood is part of your rebuilding. I want to say I’m sorry if that’s the case for you (and I am sorry for the pain!), but I am not sorry for what God will do in your life as a result. He is the ultimate foundation, the ultimate builder, the unbreakable rock. Keep coming to him. Keep hearing his Word. Keep practicing it every day. You’re going to get through the rising waters. You’re going to survive the collapse.
Israel struggled with God in the same way we do; it was a story of ups and downs. Even after they crossed the Jordan and God tried to rebuild them for the future, they eventually collapsed again. Big time. This time it looked like God just stood by and watched, even staying silent. (And you thought you were the only one who ever thought that about God.) It looked like their collapse was final. Complete. Over. Their nations were destroyed. But way back before their fall, God had already promised to rebuild them.
The prophet Jeremiah said, “I will bring Judah and Israel back from captivity and will rebuild them as they were before” (Jer. 33:7, emphasis mine). God was in the flood, the trouble, the storms, the enemies, the rising waters. Yes, it came about because of their sin and disobedience to God, and he was also in those things, dissolving their false foundations, pushing them toward the promised rebuilding.
You have never once been forgotten by God in your flood or in your sinkhole. You have that same promise of rebuilding in Christ. When the bottom of my life fell out, I knew I deserved to be left—by both my husband and God. But I also felt his compassion for me. I experienced his presence, power, and promises to me during the worst of it. Against all odds, in a move of radical grace, neither of them left me. I was forgiven, and my life was able to be rebuilt into something stronger than what it ever could have been before because now I was standing on the rock. A bunch of my salt was dissolved in one huge flood, and that same flood was the grace of God to me in Christ. I started to believe I could actually be rebuilt into someone new.
Rebuilding is possible because of the foundational work of Jesus on the cross. Romans 5:8 says, “But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” Right at the moment, when I least deserved it, he came to me to rebuild my life. He did the same for you. As you begin to come, hear, and practice following him, Romans 6:4 says you can be “buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.”
You get to live a new life on the foundation of the cross. You do not get what you deserve. You get grace instead. Grace is terribly, beautifully unfair, and it’s yours for the taking. Not everyone in your life will be happy about your rebuilding, but when God promises a rebuild, he does it. Look past the haters and keep coming, hearing, and practicing, and the strength you build will make itself known in time.
One woman came to me after I’d served in my local church faithfully for nearly twenty years and said that she worked on the same floor of my company many years back when I had the affair. She had always doubted me when I went into ministry. She doubted my integrity, my character, my honesty, my marriage, my children, my qualification for ministry—basically everything about my life. She admitted she’d slandered me to anyone who would listen to her. She hated the fact that my life had been redeemed. To her great credit, she confessed all this to me because she wanted to ask for my forgiveness and apologize. I forgave her. Not one bit of what she’d done impacted my rebuilding. God laid me a foundation in Christ that nothing on earth could crumble. He promised to rebuild my foundation and he did it. I believe the words of Philippians 1:6 for you too: “He who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.” I believe in God’s ability to recreate you and any part of your life. The foundation for a new life is always possible when Jesus is involved. When the Spirit draws you, come to him with your heart and believe he will do it. What God starts, God finishes.
Whenever I get a glimpse of a life being rebuilt, I just agree with Jesus that it’s possible—even if it looks like destruction from a flood at first. If he’s there, it’s going to happen. Rising waters and sinkholes often come before the strongest foundations. He’s enough to hold you up while you come, hear, and practice your way to standing again.
“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!” (2 Cor. 5:17)
Come to him.
Hear his Word.
Practice it with your life.
If you do, your feet will get all the way down to the Rock. And this time, you’re going to stay standing.
Excerpted from How to Stay Standing by Alli Patterson, copyright 2023. Published by Revell, a division of Baker Publishing Group. Used by permission.
is passionate about helping others build a life on the firm foundation of Jesus’s truth and grace. She holds a master’s degree in biblical studies from Dallas Theological Seminary and is a teaching pastor at Crossroads Church. She lives with her husband, Bill, their four children, and one very bratty cat. Alli is a fan of Mexican food, Ohio State football, geeky Bible maps and timelines, pedicures, long runs, and good books.
Photograph © Leo Rivas, used with permission
