October 10, 2023
You Don’t Have To Always Look Down
I was at a meeting when I heard a lady tell a coworker that she had recently gotten a pair of bifocal glasses and she felt like she was, “always looking down.” The lady was, I think, meaning that the bifocals made her always look down to be able to read. I heard this phrase, “always looking down” and I thought about how it applied to some people’s life and it has nothing to do with bifocal glasses.
Some people have such a negative attitude about everything that they are always looking down. They rarely see anything positive and thus their outlook vision is always looking down. Instead of looking up and having hope no matter what, they always see the worst possible outcome. For them, the glass is not only half empty but it is cracked and leaking too.
All through the Bible it offers words of encouragement for us to be able to see the world through a positive lens and to find the best in every situation. One passage of scripture that comes to mind is Psalm 121: 1-2 which says, “I will LIFT UP mine eyes unto the hills, from whence cometh my help. 2 My help cometh from the Lord, which made heaven and earth” The thought is that I will stop looking down in despair and choose to look UP in hope. Of course, the hope is in the Lord. Since He made heaven and the Earth nothing is too difficult for Him to help us.
Another aspect of “looking down” is that there are people who always look down on other people. No matter whom they look at they consider themselves to be above everyone else and thus they look down on other people. I am reminded in Matthew 7:1-2 that we are to “Judge not, that you be not judged. For with the judgment, you pronounce you will be judged, and with the measure you use it will be measured to you.”
And in Romans 12:3 we are told, “For I say to every man that is among you, through the grace given unto me, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think soberly according as God hath dealt to every man the measure of faith.” So if you are always looking down on others be reminded that God accepts the humble but resists the proud. So be humble, be positive, be hopeful, and confident in God. This will help us keep our vision pointed in the right direction at the right time.
In love with Jesus – Gary Mimbs