“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.” – (Isaiah 121:1-2 NIV)
Keep your head up
It’s the universal “pick me up” phrase in sports. Strike out? Keep your head up. You’ll get him next time. Lose an important game? Keep your head up. We have more work to do. Miss a big putt? Keep your head up. You have to make the next one.
The idea behind this is that our body language impacts our attitude and our outlook. If we hang our head after every failure, we will be less prepared to be successful in our next opportunity. We should move on from our mistakes and focus on doing the right thing in the future. And believe it or not, the way that we carry ourselves physically has an impact on emotions and our focus.
In his book, “The Screwtape Letters,” C.S. Lewis chronicles a conversation between two demons. In one of their conversations, he puts it this way:
“Whatever their bodies do affects their souls. It is funny how mortals always picture us as putting things into their minds: in reality our best work is done by keeping things out…”
There are many implications here: sexual purity, obedience in worship, direct service to others, and even how we take care of our health. However, this absolutely applies to our attitudes…especially after making a mistake.
When we sin, it is vital that we turn to God for repentance, guidance, and strength in overcoming that temptation in the future. However, we often try to hide our sins from God. We repeatedly try to defeat them on our own, even though we know we are not strong enough.
If we fail to keep our heads up, we deny ourselves the loving intervention of our Heavenly Father. We give sin a foothold and allow it to dictate our attitude, our focus, and our ability to actively serve in the ways that we are called.
So the next time you fail to live up to God’s standards (like we all do), keep your head up and fix your eyes on your Savior. Jesus has already defeated sin, and we all need Him to rescue us from it.
– Jamie Boggs
If you would like to submit a reader devotional, please email all submissions to jason@pao.org.
