Lift up

“For then you will delight in the Almighty and lift up your face to God.”  Job 22:26

Lift up – Faces don’t lie.  We might hear lying words, but we rarely see lying eyes.  If you look carefully, most people reveal all you need to know just in the face.  It’s a natural reaction.  You get caught.  You are confronted.  What do you do?  You look down or away.  Every mother knows this secret.  “NOW, look me in the face and tell me the truth.” 

For years we had to look away from God.  Confronted with our sins, we were not able to raise our faces to Him because the truth stood between us.  Job captures a wonderful moment when God’s presence becomes our delight and we lift up our faces to His countenance. 

When the Hebrew root nasa is used in this figurative way, it carries an importance nuance.  It is a sign of good conscience and acceptance.  This feeling has two sides.  We discover that our burdens, those lies that kept us separated from God, are removed.  We are free to look up because the weight is gone.  And when we look up we discover that God accepts us.  The burden that kept us staring at the ground never let us see the face of our redeemer.  We only saw the dirt of our sins and the dust of our grave.  We didn’t know that Son was shining.

Here’s a little trick to help you remember that nasa means looking up to God’s face.  Just substitute nasa for NASA.  They are both about getting up there.  Instead of “lift off”, you can have “lift up” everyday.  Put yourself in orbit around the Creator.  Dump that spent booster of sin.  Raise your sights toward God and let Him greet you – face to face.