You may have gotten one lately—an email, text message, or phone call that starts, “I wanted to give you a ‘heads up’ . . .” and then offers advance notice about something important. 

As helpful as such alerts can be, perhaps we should consider and appreciate them in a deeper way. Rather than as just a warning regarding some potential problem or event, it might be even more useful to view a “heads up” as a reminder from God to not look downward and inward but outward and spiritually upward.

The chronic fear, doubt, and anxiety that seem to grip many people today can drive many into hopelessness, helplessness, and acceptance of negativity as a “new normal.” Yet the Bible offers this encouraging prayer of affirmation and promise that moves us forward and upward: “Thou, O Lord, art a shield for me; my glory, and the lifter up of mine head” (Psalms 3:3).