Feeling down? Here’s a quick fix…
Recently, I heard someone tell about how she was dealing with an easily depressed teenager. She said that she had discovered that if she could just get her to look up at the trees or the sky, she could get her to snap out of feeling sorry for herself.
Look up. Think about that. The more I thought about that, Scriptures popped into my mind.
In Psalm 5, David talks about his struggles and sighing. He calls on the Lord to notice his condition and makes a commitment to look up to Him in the morning (5:3).
What if you started every morning talking to the Lord and “looking up” to Him.
When I focus on negative junk, I get down. When I dwell on the past disappointments and mistakes, I feel sad. While it is healthy to address our wrongs and acknowledge our sins, we will destroy ourselves if we focus on the negative stuff. Stop sighing and start singing.
Stuck in the mud? Don’t look down at how gooey it is and how far past your ankles it has crept. Look up the hill. What can you get ahold of to pull you out of your pit?
The writer of Psalm 40 talks about being so overwhelmed as to not be able to look up (40:12). I’ve been there. Yet, look up, we must! That song ends by talking about how the Lord lifts us up and gives us meaning. Multiple times we are told the power of looking up to the Lord (Psalm 121 & 123; Isaiah 40:26).
Jesus healed a blind man who still couldn’t see. He put his hands on the mans eyes again and told him to look up (Mark 8:25). Instantly, the man could see and comprehend what he was looking at.
Are you staring at life and not making sense of it? Do you look to the hills or at the bills. Reading more news reports, obituaries, or political commentaries won’t heal your vision.
The blind man completed his healing when he looked up. Are you seeing yet still blind? Look up! Situations you do not understand will start making sense. Questions you’ve asked will start to be answered.
Of course, I do not believe that simply moving our eyes has some magical power. However, the position of our eyes often reflect our emotional state. Give someone a genuine compliment and watch them look up with an expression of hope.
When the Lord wanted to give hope to humans, He put a rainbow in the sky. He could have made colorful puddles or any other thing He wanted to do. Instead, He made something to get us to physically look up.
The rainbow starts at the horizon, were we normally look, and moves upward, way over our heads. What has the Lord put in your path to get you follow what He is doing and look up to see the beauty He has for us?
Why would you want to look up each day? Blue skies are beautiful. Cloud formations are awesome. At night, the stars are amazing and the moon so unique to look at.
He gave us another reason to look up.
He’s coming back in the sky (Luke 21:28). When was the last time you checked to see if He was on His way? Was it after you said, “I just don’t know what I’m going to do anymore”? Was it before you grumbled, “I don’t know why I’m even alive”?
Start your day by looking up and see how your outlook changes. Don’t pray your problems; pray the Answer. Lift up your eyes by lifting up the Lord with your words.
Daily.
Of course, this step of “looking up” is not a complete overhaul of a person’s resting spirituality. A person must have a Factory Reset.
That’s a deeper, more permanent change. I hope you’ve had your reset from above. Most Christians need it and think they’ve already had it. If you want to learn more, visit this page.