“She straightened up, and praised God.” Luke 13:13 NIV
“Head held high! That’s how you want to live – thankful, joyful, expectant, free and fully alive.”
My thoughts today are to “keep looking up.”
Imagine living everyday for eighteen years during which an infirmity had twisted your body until you were physically contorted, unable to stand up straight. I think that would be terrible, a struggle to lift your head, an added difficulty to the simplest tasks – looking down all the time, seeing only the dirt and trash beneath your feet, seeing only the unlovely and unable to see the beauty above and around you.
That’s what a lady in the Bible experienced until she met Jesus. The Bible says, “There was a woman who had a spirit of infirmity eighteen years, and was bent over and could in no way raise herself up.” Luke 13:11 NIV. Tragically, that is an apt description of too many people, unable to help themselves – not knowing to look up. There was quite a difference when my mom told me to “stand up straight,” and when my dad told me to “straighten up!” For some folk doing either of those is not possible for them.
At first you may think that unusual, but consider how many people live their life that way, but often without anyone’s notice. On the outside they look as normal as anyone else, but on the inside life has damaged and twisted their spirit so badly that emotionally and spiritually their outlook seems always down. They expect the worst and life lives up to their expectations.
Their perspective of life has been afflicted by their experiences in life. Disappointed and hurt by others, they hold on to the hurts and miss seeing the ones who could, and would love them. Discouraged by how things have gone, they imagine tomorrow to be no different. Such people live everyday looking over their shoulder at all the residue of their past, rather than looking ahead with hope and expectation. They are captives of the memory of every pain and hurt they have known. It is sad when people have been bent over until they have become bound.
“When Jesus saw her, He called to her, ‘You are healed of your sickness.’ Then Jesus touched her and immediately she could stand up straight. How she praised and thanked God.” Luke 13:13 NLT. In an instant everything about her life changed. The days ahead of her were suddenly filled with wonderful possibilities and opportunities that she could not previously consider. Today, would you like for that to be more true of you?
“I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of Egypt so that you would no longer be slaves to the Egyptians; I broke the bars of your yoke and enabled you to walk with heads held high.” Leviticus 26:13 NIV. God spoke those words to a people who had lived in oppressive slavery for generations until their spirits were broken and beaten down, as surely as the woman physically affected by a spirit of infirmity. (See Exodus 6:9 NIV). Is it time for you to “straighten up”?
Head held high! That’s how you want to live. Thankful, joyful, expectant, free and fully alive. Here’s how. “Looking unto Jesus, the author and the finisher of our faith.” Hebrews 12:2 NKJV. See Psalm 121:1-8 NLT.
My prayer for you today is to be able to hope for and see the best.