Lift Up Your Head

 

The phrase “Lift up your head” has been running through my mind all week.

With their faith and their very lives at stake, Nephi was “exceedingly sorrowful” and “cried mightily to the Lord” 3 Ne 1:10,12)

And then, a voice: “Lift up your head and be of good cheer; for behold, the time is at hand, and on this night shall the sign be given, and on the morrow come I into the world” (13)

I wish I could see Nephi’s reaction! Did he shout for joy? Did he cry with gratitude? Did his heart race at the reality that the Savior was about to be born? Did he run to reassure the believers that everything would be all right? Did he think, I’ve been waiting my whole life for this! Did he say to himself, I KNEW IT! I KNEW He would come!

We’ve all looked down in sorrow. We’ve all carried heavy burdens. Maybe it’s weakness, shame, guilt. Maybe we feel unloved. Doubt. Fear. Anger. Powerless. Disappointed. Stuck. Confused. Twisted inside out in this upside down world. Darkness.

So many reasons to look down. 

But maybe that is the time to look up.

When Alma was “weighed down with sorrow, wading through much tribulation and anguish of soul,” what did the the angel say?

“Lift up thy head and rejoice” (Alma 8:14-15)

What does Jacob tell the pure in heart who are surrounded by wickedness?

“Look unto God... he will console you in your afflictions... Lift up your heads... and feast upon his love (Jac. 3:1-2)

When writing about the “horrible scene” that caused Mormon to cry, “O the depravity of my people!” what does he tell his son, Moroni?

“May not the things which I have written grieve thee, to weigh thee down... but may Christ lift thee up” (Mor. 9:25)

What did Christ do when a distraught and desperate father brought his tormented son to Him?

“Jesus took him by the hand, and lifted him up” (Mark 9:27)

Our lives aren’t at stake, but maybe our faith is.

Lift your head to Him,

who was lifted on the cross for you,

who “descended below all things,”

who suffered ALL things.

And He will lift you.

“We might even say that having descended beneath it all, He is perfectly positioned to lift us and give us the strength we need to endure our afflictions. We have only to ask.” -Oaks