Lift Up Your Eyes || Danny Gokey || Track 9

Song: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gf33jbtuTio

Introduction

Welcome back to our series, “Let’s Listen To: Christmas Edition.” This is our song-blog series that goes through some Christmas songs and breaks them down to see how the Holy Spirit is moving through this particular time of here. I thought it would be good at the halfway point of this series to talk about the song: “Lift Up Your Eyes” by Danny Gokey.

Behind the Song

It’s a newer song that Danny released in 2015 on his first Christmas album called “Christmas is Here.” Those that know me should know about my love for this man. I love all his music. I love his testimony. I love how Jesus uses him as our world’s shining light.

After some research, I can’t find any articles from Danny himself about what the song means to him, so I’m ready to dive into this. Let’s break it down!

What Does This Say? – Part 1

The opening part of the first verse says a lot:

“Light of light eternal hope has come

By and by to lead us back to love.”

One of the titles that Jesus was called with the “light of lights.” It’s synonymous with him being called the “King of Kings” and “Lord of Lords.” Jesus is the ultimate authority in everything. He is the ultimate King that reigns above all other kings in the world. That’s the deciding factor when you see “God” and “god.” The capital G shows the dominant one, while the lowercase “g” shows the common ones. Jesus calls us to be the light to the world, to shine the flame of the Holy Spirit brighter than the darkness that others can feel. We are called the light, and we need to shine our light in the way that Jesus teaches us. Jesus is the ultimate light that sends away our darkness, so we must take notes and shine our lights similarly.

Shining this light gives us the hope we need to get through our day. Jesus is the hope we need most times to deal with our anxiety, anger, and depression, among various other emotions. The hope we’ve needed to continue our lives, to dive into that new relationship, to take that new job, to move to that new place, etc. The hope we need shines through the light of Jesus Christ. That same light is found in us, which we call the Holy Spirit, which brings us to hope and leads us back to love. It leads us back to loving Jesus, loving others, loving ourselves, loving our family, friends, coworkers, pets, children, and enemies…get the picture? Jesus broke down the 613 Mosaic Laws into two: Love God and Love People. It’s almost like that was Jesus’ main foundation in this pastoral work: LOVE. Jesus is the definition of how to love, reaffirmed in Paul’s first letter to the church in Corinth. 1 Corinthians 13 is commonly known as “The Love Chapter” because Paul breaks down what love is and how we should love each other as Christ has loved us.

What Does This Say? – Part 2

The opening part of the second verse says a lot as well:

“Come and lay your offering at his feet.

Where the sons of earth and heavens meet

Let the joy awaken in every heart.”

I know when we hear the word offering, we think of money. The offering sometimes means something other than that. An offer can be “an expression of readiness to do or give something if desired.” The general definition of offering something represents a sign of readiness that you’re ready to act or sacrifice a thing you have (money, time, food, etc.) if you’re ready. That’s the thing about an offering. It takes your willingness to do that. We need to offer God and offer Jesus a lot. It could be money to help out a specific cause or ministry. It could be time to get groceries for a neighbor. It could be buying food to cook a meal for a relative or a shut-in. The offering we need to give is one of selfishness. We need to give that to Jesus and let Him do wonders within us to turn our selfish hearts into the self-sacrificial heart. Then we could see the joy that comes through the works of Jesus. The joy that comes alive and shines when we do a kind thing for someone. The joy that comes alive and shines when we say a kind word to someone having a rough day. Doing these kinds of things for people sometimes gives people the title of “Angel,” which is what Danny refers to in the second line of this section. It’s a title that only a few people live up to, but more people need to live up to it.

That’s all I got for this blog. Hope you enjoyed the halfway point of this series. We got two more blogs to go, and then Christmas will be here. See you then. Stay blessed!