Learn To Look All The Way Up

Learn to look all the way up, all the way to God, maker of Heaven and of earth. This is what the psalmist did in Psalm 121. He knew the source of his help and made up his mind to train his eyes on Him. There are many advantages to learning to look to God.

One such advantage is that you will always be radiant. Or, to quote the bible: “They looked to Him and were radiant and their faces were not ashamed. That means another advantage is that you will never be ashamed when you learn to look all the way up. Because all the way up is where God dwells, the source of all help. He is the helper of the helpless.

And that brings us to another point. There is no point looking up if you are not helpless. God does not help the one who thinks he is already full of help. You need to be help-less for God to come to your rescue. The significance of that last statement is that you do not make God your plan ‘B’ or your fallback position.

No, when you know you have no help but God, you quickly learn to look all the way up. This takes practice because we are all so used to looking to man for our help. As soon as we are in any kind of trouble, our first thought is of a rich uncle or mother. We look to them for help and it is only after they have all failed that we think of God.

Don’t Look Half Way Up

When you do that, you are looking only partway up and at that level, all you see is a man. And the arm of flesh does fail, rather regularly. And that is not the only danger of looking to man, halfway up. God placed a curse on that attitude. “Cursed is the man who trusts in man and makes flesh his strength, whose heart departs from the Lord.”

You may wonder why God is so harsh in that verse. It is because unless you learn to look all the way up, your heart has already departed from the Lord. We see that in the very last phrase of the verse. And when your heart departs from God, it means you have another person in that priority position which is God’s.

Anything or anyone that displaces God from being number one is an idol, period. And that makes you an idolater, despite your not bowing down to a piece of wood or metal. You see, a lot of us see the word idol and think of a carved or graven image but it is more than that. Unless you learn to look all the way up to God, you are an idol worshipper.

Shocking as that might be, there is more. Look at that verse again; it starts with “cursed is the man who trusts in man.” Ouch! Unless we take care, that could easily mean we are all idolaters. Take for example the moment I decided to work on this post. If I thought to myself that I am good at this and can easily write it, I am trusting in man. Not in another man, but in myself – man. I become an idolater.

Learn To Look All The Way Up Beyond Yourself

That means anytime you trust in your ability, education, social standing, or bank account, your heart departs from the Lord.  Little wonder then that God warned us against leaning on our own understanding. Instead, we are to trust in the Lord with all our heart. That is another way of saying we must learn to look all the way up to God.

Ensure you do not put yourself under the curse of God by depending on yourself or any other man. Hard as it is to look away from your training and abilities, you must not look to yourself in any area of endeavor. Instead, lift your eyes to the hills, from whence your help comes. If you tend to think of yourself or a relative as the solution to your problems, continue to raise your eyes.

Practice doing it and before too long, it will become a habit. Before you resort to yourself or your relative or boss, you will find yourself praying. And that is a good way to look all the way up. It is also when God surprises you by sending help from totally unexpected quarters. There is more to this looking at the right level, which we consider in the next section.

Don’t Look Down On Others

If you don’t learn to look all the way up to God, you tend to look down on others. You start to think of yourself more highly than you ought to, which we should certainly not do. Don’t look down at all and you will not see anyone against whom you can be proud. In any case, what do you have that you did not receive, and if you received it, why the pride?

The other danger in looking down is that that is where all the problems of life reside. You look, like Peter who looked at the boisterous waves, at the problems of life and you start to sink. As long as Peter was looking at the Lord, he walked on water but the moment he looked down, he sank. In a similar fashion, unless you learn to look all the way up to God, your problems cause you to sink.

Finally, Satan and all his devices live down there. Looking down makes you vulnerable to his wiles and temptations. If you want to overcome temptations, keep your eyes away from the devil. Instead, learn to look all the way up to God and He will send you help to overcome.

Maranatha!