“I Will Lift Up Mine Eyes”
“A Song of degrees. I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills, from whence cometh my help. My help cometh from the LORD, which made heaven and earth.” Psalm 121:1-2
How shocked, and appalled, I was when I saw a video of the first time I preached. It wasn’t the message that troubled me. Nor was it that my voice wasn’t abundantly loud and clear. Nor was I shaking and terrified. It was my response to some microphone issues as I was getting started. The video captured something I had been doing for YEARS that I had unbelievably managed to avoid ever much noticing let alone addressing. Right on camera, for all to see as I preached, was what the Lord had been looking down upon from heaven for years. I was rolling my eyes – over and over – in total frustration, exasperation, impatience, and, in my estimate, utter rudeness and lack of trust in God that He holds the world including myself in His hands!
Years later, when I was even further entrenched in this unwholesome habit of mine, a beloved friend sent me a scripture in the mail along with his usual monthly donation to my ministry – the very verse that had been on my heart just days before. The Holy Spirit grabbed a hold of my heart and poured into me a wonderful idea. When I started to roll my eyes as I became overwhelmed with something, I needed to repent of my sour attitude and lift my eyes upward to heaven speaking these words aloud or at the very least in my heart: “I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills.” Why was I so often overwhelmed? Because I was looking to myself, and to the world, for human strength, instead of looking heavenward for the mercy, strength, and help of the Creator of the universe! I wish I could say the eye-rolling habit just disappeared. Not so! But now I knew how to address it. Each time I caught my eyes rolling upward, I must try to remember to lift them even higher – to the Lord!
When you find yourself overwhelmed, struggling, afraid, etc., lift your eyes up until the hills – to the Lord!