Look Up

My earlier blogs have mentioned Connie, my wife’s medical problems. Despite the remarkable knowledge science, doctors, or medicine offer, Connie and I have determined the medical field has no solutions for her symptoms of a unique version of MDS and the physical trauma from her systolic blood pressure randomly and abruptly dropping 40-50. Each physician expressed their perplexity. We can resonate with the bewilderment the people of Israel had when threatened by armies much greater than theirs.

For them, the natural choice would be to reach out for help from a stronger nation like Egypt, the former world ruler. God forbid them to do so, saying He would protect them. Overwhelmed by fear, they saw Egypt as their only tangible hope. When most of us encounter medical problems, we reach out to doctors and medicine as our last tangible hope. God has used physical things to bring recovery to his people (Isaiah 38:21). He even guided Jacob to use striped stakes to grow the size of his flock (Genesis 30:40). He can use anything, but more often insists His people trust Him and Him alone. The challenge is to know which method He will use on each occasion.

In Isaiah 40, God had allowed the Babylonians to defeat His people because of their insistence on serving idols instead of Him, but now they needed comforting. Their imagination had been starved by focusing on impotent idols; today we have more idols in our life than they had then! They are not just images made of tin, wood, or gold. Isaiah told them to look up instead of around themselves. He tried to get them to feed their imaginings on the greatness of God seen in the nature He had created. He challenged them to look up into the heavens. Who created all the stars? He brings them out like an army, one after another, calling each by its name. Because of his great power and incomparable strength, not a single one is missing. O Jacob, how can you say the LORD does not see your troubles? O Israel, how can you say God ignores your rights (Isaiah 40:26-27, NLT2)? And He gives power to the weak and strength to the powerless. Even youths will become weak and tired, and young men will fall in exhaustion. But those who trust in the LORD will find new strength. They will soar high on wings like eagles. They will run and not grow weary. They will walk and not faint (Isaiah 40:29-31, NLT2)

There is a stunning difference in our countenance, emotions, or mental attitude when we intentionally take our eyes off our circumstance and fix them upon the awe-inspiring greatness of our God. It makes me wonder if God has allowed Connie and me to explore all the possibilities of the medical world to find them desperately falling short, so that we will fix our eyes on Him alone and imagine His indescribable awesomeness. Without question, we have seen Him, His power, love, grace, and mercy. We have had Him work His power through us and provide for us multiple times. However, we also have known God is far more magnificent than we can imagine. This is how He can show us another dimension of who He is. That very thought humbles me! It is no wonder why David wrote when I see your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon, and the stars, which you have put in their places; What is man, that you keep him in mind? the son of man, that you take him into account? (Psalm 8:3-4, BBE)

For those of you facing overwhelming obstacles, will you join Connie and me and look up instead of looking around at your circumstances? Paul wrote set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth (Colossians 3:2, ESV).

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