Look Up

I will lift up my eyes to the hills – From whence comes my help? My help comes from the LORD, Who made heaven and earth. Psalms 121:1-2

As I sat down to write this morning, all I could hear God saying was “Look up. Get your focus off of earthly things.” And to be totally honest, He was telling me that all day yesterday, but I wasn’t really listening. How many times do we do that in our lives? A lot if you’re me!

My morning started with me hitting snooze yesterday about ten times. Then I had early duty putting me outside in the freezing cold, not once but twice that morning with all of the kids then Prek. Let me just tell you, I hate the cold! I worked all day and rushed to Dyersburg to pick up Olivia and get her to choir, which took longer than expected. I still had to get Ann Elizabeth, and if you didn’t happen to notice here in the south, it’s bedtime at 5:00pm. I was exhausted at this point and didn’t feel like cooking. We met the boys for dinner, and I still needed to make a Walmart run. By 8:00pm, I was dragging myself in the house, and I still had things to do. By this point I was done.

I found myself yelling at Witten and wishing he knew what was going on. And do you know what that little boy did in the midst of my chaos? He leaned over and grabbed me around the neck and said, “I love you.” It caught me off guard because I was fussing at him. It allowed me to take a deep breath and change my outlook. God used that little boy to change my whole demeanor.

It’s so easy to get caught up in the here and now and not put our focus on Jesus. James 4:14 says, “Whereas you do not know what will happen tomorrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away.” In a blink of an eye, we are gone, and all of this fades away. We have to be intentional about keeping our eyes fixed above.

Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth. Colossians 3:2

We have to stay in the Word and we have to stay in prayer. Romans 10:17 says, “So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God.” 1 Thessalonians 5:17 says, “Pray without ceasing.” Lots of people think that as long as they are in church on Sunday mornings, they are getting enough of God’s Word and spending enough time with him. This is not the case. We have to have that time where we just quiet our spirits and spend time with the Lord on our own. Think of it this way, if you had a friend that you only hung out with in large groups, you would never get to know them intimately. On the other hand, when you start to spend time with them alone, you become closer. It’s the same way with God. You need that one on one time with Him. It’s hard to look up when you don’t truly have an intimate relationship with Jesus,

Without that intimacy with the Lord, our troubles become our focus. I encourage you today to spend some time with the Lord and look up. Change your outlook. Let those glimpses of God’s grade, make you step back and take a deep breath. No matter how grim the outlook, look to the One who can change it all.

If you are not sure what a relationship with Jesus looks like or even is, please contact me today. I would love to talk with you and lead you to Jesus.