Church Volume Two: A 9-Day Devotional by Jesus CultureSample

I Lift My Eyes - Mack Brock

Fear is one of the strongest human emotions. It can grip your heart in an instant and make you say and do things that you never would’ve considered doing had fear not been whispering lies in your ear.  

And unfortunately, the whispers can sometimes feel more like screams as the list of fears run through your mind like ticker tape … “I”m afraid of missing out. I’m afraid of being rejected. I’m afraid I don’t have what it takes. I’m afraid of being hurt.”  And if we are really honest, we know that if we don’t tend to these fears, they will end up controlling us. 

So how do we face these fears? How do we quiet the lies in our life that threaten to overtake us? 

Psalms 121:1-2 says:

1 I lift up my eyes to the mountains—

 where does my help come from?

2 My help comes from the Lord,

 the Maker of heaven and earth.

The first step is to take our eyes off the fear and put them on the Maker of all things, on Jesus himself.

“I Lift My Eyes” is a song that comes from the desire to take my eyes off the fears in my life and put them on Jesus. It's a song that can help you and me shift from focusing on the valley to focusing on the victory.

When we wrote “I Lift My Eyes” we were tempted to start the lyrics in that place of struggle and fear, but we intentionally made the choice to start it declaring that "I won’t be afraid of the battle I’m in, I won’t be afraid of the fight I may have to endure." 

God is my defender. He is before, behind, and beside me. I’m not alone in any of the fears I have. God, who is higher than the mountains, and greater than the heavens, the maker of the universe, is on my side. He promises in His Word that He will give me the strength to endure anything. 

These promises don’t mean that the fight won’t be there, or that we won’t experience trouble or heartache. But it does mean that we will NEVER have to face our fears alone. We can trust that He is in the process with us, walking the journey—working things out for our good.

A mighty fortress

For every weakness

I am not helpless

You’ve never failed me once

I have a savior 

For every failure

I am not hopeless

You’ve never failed me once

Fear is a liar. Jesus has never left you alone. Look to the heavens, that's where your help comes from.