Looking up
At times life can weigh us down, so much so, that all we can see is our shoes. Our world gets small when we look down, it is easy to analyze and focus on our stuff or the faults of others this can result in negativity that can stunt growth and narrow our viewpoint. Our UP- look gives us perspective.
Something’s in life are beyond us and when we try to wrap our mind around it can get confusing and we lose the mystery. People can be a mystery; bad things that happen to godly people can be a mystery.
The uniqueness in a relationship that once drew us together can be lost the moment we try to change or control one another. Looking up in prayer can help bring wisdom and understanding to what we are experiencing.
In the Gospels, Jesus often came across burdened people. Jesus touched a woman crippled and bent over in Luke 13:10-17. He spoke a word of healing and she was straightened. She had a personal encounter and was loosed from her burdens.
Weights
What is not in the Lord care, can weigh us down. The landscape of life can include some unwelcome guests like depression, a pressure that resists our upward view. Oppression can be like an added weight like a wet blanket that pushes us down inside and out.
Compression, a sense of claustrophobia where everything feels like all is closing in on every side. Maybe you’re familiar with one or all of these destructive agents.
Jesus promised to be a shield about us and the lifter of our hearts in Psalms 3:3. This is our provision.
Where do you look?
Where you look determines relief or heaviness. Looking at ourselves in a negative way can compound our heaviness. The psalmist tells us in Psalms 121:1-3:
I will lift up my eyes unto the hills, from whence comes my help. My help comes from the Lord, which made heaven and earth. He will not suffer thy foot to be moved: he that keeps thee will not slumber.
Jesus promises to be your strength and life support in Psalms 55:18 – look away and look unto Him.
Positive thinking or denial of the obvious doesn’t deliver the full answer. The answer is to look into the eyes of Jesus and trade our shame for Grace. Maybe we may feel too weak to do this, but as we look to Jesus He will bridge the gap and do the rest.
Our healing comes by an intentional looking at the cross, we see this illustrated in Numbers 21 as the Israelites looked away from their snakebites healing came. Looking away from the crisis and the hurt and receiving love leads us out of our pit in Psalms 40:1-2.
Balance
Solomon writes “a false balance is an abomination, but a just weight is his delight…. Proverbs 11:1”. God’s word brings balance. We may think all balance is determined by the proper weight distribution on either side of the scales but in the spiritual realm, it is different – it is the content that determines the power of influence.
What we focus on builds momentum. Our focus empowers and releases authority which can overcome destructive thought patterns. No matter how small the promise or truth appears to have – it is far greater than anything coming against us. No matter how small a look may seem, or a step in the right direction, this potential can release all the power of heaven.
Falling Forward
We are all familiar with the term “backsliding“. Failure often can bring us backward and we lose ground. When we fall, grace is there every time to move us forward!
Just like an escalator, His love moves us closer to him. The consequences are there but there is also capacity and comfort to grow.
No one likes to fall – it hurts. Watching my son learn to ride a bike was exciting but also painful. He had all the gear to lessen the blow of his fall but falling, scraping and blood was inevitable. Getting back up and trying again, taught him that some lessons of growth have a failure in it.
Look into the eyes of Jesus today and receive words from above. Look away from the things that steal your joy and energy and choose to worship. We may tell ourselves we can’t or that we don’t have the desire or strength, but the truth is the desire and strength come from the Lord.
Jesus will free you like a bird from a cage and release your soul from prison to praise him in Psalms 142:7. Wherever you are now, standing, laying down or falling, look up into Jesus wonderful face, He will give you a new song.
Jason is a graduate from Maryland Bible College and Seminary, and presently he leads the Pastoral Care Team of Greater Grace Church in Baltimore. Since age 16, Jason has been involved with mission work among the former Soviet-Bloc countries in Eastern Europe, as well as in Asia, and in the United States. While living in Ukraine, he helped church plant three new churches that continue to thrive today under trained nationals. He has also written five books and has his own podcast (www.InnerRevolution.us)
good words… one of mine is the same: Psalms 121:1-3:
“I will lift up my eyes unto the hills, from whence comes my help? (when David looked to the hills he acknowledged that pagans worshipped at the Asherah poles)
My help comes from the Lord, which made heaven and earth. (David’s help doesn’t come from idols, but from the one and only, the LORD)
He will not suffer thy foot to be moved: he that keeps thee will not slumber.” (David recognizes that relief will only come from God because God never stops caring for us at any time of the day!)
amen, we worry far too much for things Jesus said why worry?
Yes! The age of anxiety we carry what God wants to carry for us. Lord what will you do not what am I to do? Joint heirs with Christ -0 he does the heavy lilft and we are the worshipers!