Lift Up Your Eyes: Even in the Valley

Have you ever cried out to God from a place so heavy that you could barely see past the pain? David in the Bible understood that kind of distress, and so do many of us.

I will lift up my eyes to the hills where my help comes from—Psalms 121

When my natural eyes see the circumstances surrounding me, my spiritual eyes are lifted to the hills where my help comes from. The Lord is good, and He has been faithful through every season. In this particular season of adversity in my life, one of the scriptures I’ve been meditating on is Psalm 4:1

"Answer me when I call to You, my righteous God. Give me relief from my distress; have mercy on me and hear my prayer.”

The word "distress" in this verse carries several layers of meaning, but one in particular stands out to me. In Psalm 4:1, the Hebrew word for “distress” is "tsar," meaning “a narrow place” or being closed in on every side. Despair can feel like an emotional or spiritual confinement, as though there is no escape and no clear way forward. Have you ever been in a place of distress like David, crying out to the Lord in raw and passionate despair?

So often, we depend on everyone and everything else first, while making the God of heaven and earth our last resort—or worse, not turning to Him at all in the middle of our struggle. If you reach a place where you no longer depend on Jesus as your Savior in all things, you are sadly standing on the precipice of backsliding. And backsliding rarely happens overnight. It happens one day, one moment, and one decision at a time.

In this walk with Christ, our faith will be tested to the hilt. Satan will throw everything he can at you in an attempt to rob you of your spiritual endurance and push you to your absolute limit, hoping to ultimately destroy the believer. We are human, and trying seasons are inevitable. But when we refuse to allow God to be our first resort during adversity, we miss the opportunity for those seasons to become places of refinement.

Right now, my trust in God is being tested. Yet I have enough history with Him—enough moments where He has carried me, sustained me, and proven Himself faithful—to know this is not the end of my story. So I’m learning to count it all joy. And for now, while I walk through this valley, I’ll keep lifting my eyes to the hills, because that is where my help comes from.

In the valleys of life, the source we run to reveals where our trust truly rests. So, where does your help come from?

✝ Written in faith by Kamilia Watson