Look Up!

We’re all painfully aware that the mood of our day is downcast. We’ve been shaken by the collapse of trusted financial institutions and Fortune 500 corpor­ations. Slip-sliding global markets have sent us scurrying home to stuff the few dollars we have left into the mattress. And job security is a thing of the past. This propels us into a panic and guard-the-fort mode—and followers of Christ are not immune to this temptation.

And that’s exactly why we need the Lord’s gracious help to look up—look up from our dismal doubts and worst case scenarios, and look into his radiant face. Here’s the bottom line: in hard times, God is NOT honored when we sink into fear, circle the wagons, and ignore his powerful presence. Look up: “Lift up your eyes!”

“I lift up my eyes to you, to you whose throne is in heaven” (Ps 123:1). “Lift up your eyes on high and see: who created these? He who brings out their host by number, calling them all by name, by the greatness of his might, and because he is strong in power not one is missing” (Isa 40:26). “Get you up to a high mountain, O Zion, herald of good news; lift up your voice with strength, O Jerusalem, herald of good news; lift it up, fear not; say to the cities of Judah, ‘Behold your God!’” (Isa 40:9).

So times are tough—that’s true, humanly speaking. And you need help? So do I. We all need help to avoid falling into the swamp of self-preservation; we all need help to look up and rivet our heart’s attention on the all-sufficient, all-satisfying Lord: “I lift up my eyes to the hills—where does my help come from? My help comes from the LORD, the Maker of heaven and earth” (Ps 121:1-2). “One thing I ask of the LORD, this is what I seek: that I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the LORD and to seek him in his temple” (Ps 27:4).

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