Been Knocked Down By Life? You Will Stand Up Again

Sep 12

Knocked down by grief, struggles, trials, or setbacks? In this EEW Magazine devotional, Dianna Hobbs encourages you to trust in the power of Jesus to help you stand again!

Yesterday morning, I woke with my dad heavy on my mind. For as long as I can remember, he was the spiritual engine behind everything I did in ministry. He prayed for me, spoke life over me, and whenever my confidence wavered, he reminded me that I could do all things through Christ.

Now I’m facing something new: preaching this month in Mobile, Alabama, and for the first time, stepping onto that platform without my father’s prayers or presence. That realization stung.

So I called my mom, Annie. Just last week it had been two months since Dad passed. We talked about him, the emptiness, how much everyone misses him.

Then the conversation turned. Mom opened up about the day Dad went home to be with the Lord. She told me how, after the undertaker left and the hospital bed stood empty, she just stared at that space and thought, “He’s gone? I’ll never see him again?” Her heart broke under the weight of that moment.

But right there, God put a song in her spirit: Because He lives, I can face tomorrow.

I’ve known that song since I was a little girl, singing it with both my parents. In that moment, the Lord reminded her—and me—that even when someone we love is gone, God is still alive. Because He lives, we can keep going.

***

After we hung up, the Holy Spirit pressed something on my heart. After 90 years, Dad’s work was finished. If it hadn’t been his time, death wouldn’t have stood a chance.

The Lord nudged me to look at my own life as evidence. I know what it’s like to have doctors give you a death sentence. The medical field had counted me out, but God had the final say.

Now I see why God led me to John 11 yesterday. When Jesus heard Lazarus was sick, He said, “This sickness will not end in death. No, it is for God’s glory so that God’s Son may be glorified through it.”

Some sicknesses, some struggles, aren’t meant to end your story. They come to reveal God’s glory, to set the stage for a miracle.

That’s what God has done in my life. Death couldn’t have me, because God still had more glory to get.

Bless His name!

When I look at Lazarus’s story, I see that God often chooses the most desperate places for His glory to break through.

Bethany, the village of Mary, Martha, and Lazarus, means “house of affliction” or “house of figs.” Some say it was a place where the poor and the sick were cared for, a refuge outside Jerusalem.

Whether you see Bethany as a place of suffering or fruitfulness, it’s a reminder: God’s miracles often happen right in the middle of pain. Fruit springs from hard, unlikely ground. Refuge appears in the heart of affliction.

***

Whenever Jesus steps into barren places and brings life, He’s showing what He meant in John 11:25: “I am the resurrection and the life.”

The word for resurrection—anástasis—means “to stand up again.” For Lazarus, it was standing from the grave. For my father, it means standing in glory. Death does not write the ending.

But anástasis isn’t just for the dead. The God who raises the dead also lifts up the living. Resurrection isn’t only for a distant day; it’s the power to stand up again today, after grief or heartbreak has knocked you down.

The Bible says, “The Spirit of God, who raised Jesus from the dead, lives in you. And just as God raised Christ Jesus from the dead, he will give life to your mortal bodies by this same Spirit living within you” (Romans 8:11 NLT).

That means the same resurrection power is at work in your life, equipping you to arise. You can rise out of sin, despair, fear, sickness, depression. Christ’s resurrection is your assurance.

So let me ask: How has life knocked you down? Is it health, finances, relationships, loss, rejection, betrayal, disappointment, failure?

Hold it in your mind, and cling to the truth of 2 Corinthians 4:9: you may be struck down, but you are not destroyed.

If you’re still here, you can stand up again.

As someone who has been knocked down and chased by death more than once, I know: Jesus still gives us the power to rise up. By His authority, I speak life over you. I declare dead dreams will live again. You will fulfill your destiny. Come on and speak Psalm 118:17 over yourself: “I shall not die, but live, and declare the works of the Lord.”

And so it is.

***

Hear me, friend: God is stepping into your Bethany, your place of barrenness and affliction, and helping you to stand up again.

He’s calling you to place your hope in Him and know, because He lives, you can face tomorrow—and you can stand up today.

Hear the word the Lord is speaking over you: rise up!

Even if storms have knocked you flat, Jesus says, I am your life. Rise.

Rise out of sickness. Rise out of depression. Rise out of lack. Rise out of bondage. Rise out of fear, out of shame, from every place where hope feels buried. Rise when your faith is weak, when your strength is gone, when the world says you’re finished.

Because He lives, you can rise up again and again, no matter how many times you’re knocked down.

As a reminder, I’m stirring Philippians 3:10-11 as the sweetener in your cup of inspiration: “I want to know Christ—yes, to know the power of his resurrection (anástasis) and participation in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, attaining to the resurrection (anástasis) from the dead.”

As you drink down the contents of your cup, meditate on this word. Remind yourself that the same resurrection power that raised Jesus is alive in you. The power to stand up again isn’t just hope for a far-off day; it’s a promise for right now. Take heart. Let our Resurrected Savior fill you with courage, strength, and confidence to stand up again, no matter what tried to keep you down.

Now, let’s pray.

God, thank You for reminding me that the same power that raised Jesus from the dead lives in me. I can stand up again, no matter how low I fall, because You empower and equip me. Today, I proclaim with confidence that You have given me authority to rise. By faith, I’m getting up out of sickness. Out of lack. Out of depression. Out of anything that has come to hold me back. And I thank You for victory over every setback and hindrance! In Jesus’ name, Amen.

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