He Lifts Me Up
Last week I truly needed to be lifted. I just couldn't find the strength to lift myself. I mistakenly looked within myself, tried to pull myself out of a pit of self-pity I seemed to be slipping into. I only slipped deeper into the pit that I did not want to be in. I then looked to man, friends, for comfort and guidance and received kind words and advice, but no divine lift, no elevation to the place I needed to be. I finally looked to Jesus, the lifter of my head. When I can't lift myself He stretches forth His strong hand. He is the one true friend who can truly transport from desolation to jubilation. He takes us from sinking into a pit of self-pity to soaring into a place of perfect peace.
I searched for lifting scriptures. God, the lifter of my head, directed me to these two familiar passages. The first passage speaks of a crippled woman who could not lift herself. She was at the synagogue on the Sabbath. The scripture doesn't tell us how she got there, or what her purpose was for being there. There is no mention of her calling out to Jesus and asking for healing, BUT Jesus saw her and He called her to come to Him. He spoke the words of healing. He touched her. Immediately she was healed and glorified God. Jesus saw He spoke. He touched. She was lifted up, healed immediately by Jesus and she glorified God.
In the second passage, there was a crippled man begging at the gate of the temple. He did not get there on his own. He was lifted up and carried there by someone. Peter saw the man, He spoke words of healing in the name of Jesus to this man. He touched him, lifted him up with his right hand and immediately the man, crippled from birth, was healed. He leaped and praised God. Peter saw. He spoke. He touched. The man was lifted up, healed immediately by the power of Jesus Christ flowing through one of His disciples. The man once crippled praised God.
The similarities I found between these two passages went just a little deeper than seeing, speaking, touching, lifting, healing, and praising. These passages were directly related to what I had experienced trying to lift myself, depending on friends to lift me, and finally turning to Jesus, the lifter of my head.
Both of these people needed to be lifted. The lady was in a place perhaps by choice, (the synagogue) but she didn't want to be there as she was, bowed and bent, stooped and in pain, perhaps in a pit of self-pity. She could not lift herself. Perhaps she thought she could help herself just by being at the synagogue. She didn't call out for help to be lifted, she was just there slipping deeper into her own pain. She was depending on something from within herself to lift her from her state of self-pity and pain.
The man was in a place perhaps by choice (the gate of the temple). Friends had carried him there to beg, but he most assuredly would have preferred to be there healthy and whole. He could not leave there until someone came to carry him. He could not lift himself from that place. Perhaps he asked his friends to help him. His friends thought they were helping him by carrying him to that place every day, a place that only aided him to stay in the same condition he had been in all his life. The crippled man was depending on a man to lift him from his state of poverty and desolation.
We each need to learn where to go to be lifted up. We cannot always find the strength within ourselves to lift ourselves. Even though friends sometimes encourage us, there are times that all the encouragement in the world from friends cannot lift us to the place we truly need to be.
Jesus Christ is our true transport from desolaton to jubilation.
He sees. He speaks. He touches and lifts us up. He heals immediately.
We should leap and praise and glorify our great God.