Isn’t it nice that disciples have help when we need it? This devotion looks at a familiar verse about God helping us when we seek Him.
Nuggets
- When we seek God, we will find Him.
- We should want to lift our eyes because that is where God is.
- It is comforting to know that, when things are at their worst, God will help us.
Sometimes we inflate our egos. We become self-centered and self-important.
We like to be able to depend on ourselves. We don’t like to have others tell us what to do.
We think we’ve been down the road before, so we can handle it. We don’t need others — and we don’t need God.
Let's Put It into Context
Life is like being in a car late at night in the country. We may or may not have been on the road before; however, we can’t see the destination. We can only see as far as the headlights show us.
We may know the road, but our vision is limited. We have to travel before we can see more landscape in the headlights.
Then think about driving in the city. There may be streetlights so we can see a little farther but think of all the distractions! It is easy to take our focus off the road. We have to watch out for other cars and pedestrians.
We really only see what is happening today. We may be making our plans for tomorrow, but that doesn’t guarantee that they will be carried out. We don’t have any guarantee that the plans we make for the next hour or minute will be carried out.
Even if we know the road, obstacles can pop up unexpectedly. The township workers may be working on the road. A deer may jump out in front of us. It may have rained, and there is water over the road.
We may end up veering off the paths we are supposed to take. It may be a conscious or unconscious decision. But hurdling down the wrong road we go!
What happens? People die. We lose our jobs. We miss our plane. The water heater takes a dive. [Insert your problem for the moment.]
Things come up all the time that try to take our focus off God. We will always need God. We may think we don’t, but we do.
Up
“I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills, from whence cometh my help” (Ps. 121: 1 KJV)
Heading
When we seek God, we will find Him. “I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills …” (Ps. 121: 1 KJV)Psalm 121: 1 (KJV). We just have to look up — literally and figuratively.
We have to look up from the sickness, the hassles, the trials. We shouldn’t focus as much on this life. We should take the focus off of us.
We should focus on God and our eternal life. We should focus on our relationship with Him.
Maclaren wrote that looking up was “a resolution, and a resolution born of intense longing. It comes to be a very sharp question with us professing Christians, whether the horizon of our inward being is limited by, and coterminous with, the horizon of our senses, or whether, far beyond the narrow limits to which these can reach, our spirits’ desire stretches boundless.”
Oh, yes. We limit God by trying to run everything through our understanding — what we think, see, and feel.
Instead, we have to look up in genuine faith. “Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen” (Heb. 11: 1 ESV).
We associate “the best” with up. We “climb the ladder” to a better job. We want the “penthouse view.”
We don’t want to be “down in the gutter.” Or at the “bottom of the totem pole.”
We should want to lift our eyes because that is where God is. Robinson had an interesting take. He said, “If ever the eyes are strained towards heaven, it is by rose [sic] who go to the sanctuary, or long to do so.”
Help
“My help cometh from the Lord, which made heaven and earth” (Ps. 121: 2 KJV)
When we are God’s children (Jn. 1: 12), we can expect His help. “I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills from whence cometh my help” (Ps. 121: 1 KJV)Psalm 121: 1 (KJV).
It is comforting to know that, when things are at their worst, God will help us. “My help cometh from the Lord, which made heaven and earth” (Ps. 121: 2 KJV).
But we have to remember that we can only reach our goals through God’s help. We have our knowledge and abilities only because God has given us the capacity to have them.
I loved what the Homilist said. “God is the only true help of the soul. He alone can raise it from its fallen condition, break its fetters, heal its wounds, energize its faculties, and set it on a course safe and prosperous.”
Ooo, baby. The King of kings will help us. It is hard to fathom that at times. But it is always true.
Making the Connections
We do need God. Things go so much more smoothly when He is in control. God can see the whole road. He knows what obstacles are going to pop up. He knows the distractions we face. Most of all, He knows what is best for us.
God is powerful enough to create this universe. He is powerful enough to help us in any situation in which we find ourselves.
How Do We Apply This?
- We have to give God control of our lives.
- We want to look to God for help in the little stuff and the big stuff.
- If we can just give up self and let Him take the steering wheel, things would be so much better.
Robinson also said that is in a different direction than what we’ve been discussing, but it is something we need to think about. He said, “… it is possible to join the assembly of God’s saints, and not lift up our eyes to the hills. Some who make excursions seem to see all the meaning of their journey in what they take with them, others go chiefly to refresh themselves in the contemplation of God’s flowers and trees, rocks and rivers, valleys and hills. Of travellers climbing together to a mountain summit, there are those who, on reaching it, as if they had done all, lie down till the moment for returning; while their wiser companions, as if there were something for which they had been at the trouble of ascending, stand on the top, and look forth earnestly. They admire the prospect, and mark the direction of a more lofty mountain which they intend to gain, and how the road lies by which they will have to travel thither.”
We want to make sure we are constantly looking at where God is leading us. We want to always strive for the next mountain top.
We want to search for and seek God.
O Lord. So often we get tied up in our lives and forget to look to You. Other times, we think we don’t need Your help. We do. Lord, You know best what we need. You have a plan for our lives that is so much richer and rewarding than what we come up with for our lives. We lift our eyes to You. We deflate our egos. We admit that we need You. Illuminate Your Will for our lives. Amen.
What do you think?
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