Read Textual Sermon from Steven Furtick
Look for God in the Lows
I want to teach you how to look for God in the lows, because if you can look for Him in the lows, you can only go so low. One psalm says,
“If I ascend up into heaven, thou art there: if I make my bed in hell, behold, thou art there.” (Psalm 139:8, KJV)
“Where shall I go from thy Spirit? Or where shall I flee from thy presence?” (Psalm 139:7, KJV)
If I say, “Surely the darkness shall cover me,” even the night shall be light about me—for You are there. Your presence is everywhere.
So, I want you to look for God in the lows.
The Ascent and the Lament
Now, the contrast we have in Psalm 120—why I thought it would be so great for us to study together today—is because, on one hand, this psalmist is going up. He’s going up to Jerusalem. Jerusalem is in the mountain region, so to go to Jerusalem, you go up every time.
A Song of Ascent. He’s singing a song of ascent as he’s going up, but it’s also a song of lament, which is grief. So, he’s on his way, headed up to worship, but there is something that is weighing him down as he walks.
Every single person here today, on your way up to worship, on your way to lift your hands and praise God—on your way over here—there was something that was weighing you down. It’s surprising you didn’t have a flat tire from all the weight that was in the car, with the tension that is in your family, and the tension that is in your heart, and the tension of your faith and your frustration.
We’re all like the psalmist—while we are on our way up, we are weighed down. I want to tell you, my friend, that’s normal. Learning to live with this—it’s the ascent and the lament, all in the same song, all in the same room, all in the same mind.
You can think of something right now that would make you so happy you’d start dancing—you’d forget you don’t know how to dance. But if I mentioned something else, something heavy in your life, your hands would drop, your head would fall, and your heart would sink.
Because as I’m on the way up, it doesn’t mean I’m not weighed down. I never praise God because my situation is perfect. To wait for a perfect situation to praise God is to wait for something that never comes. That’s a setup from the Enemy. If you procrastinate your praise or your peace until your situation is perfect, you’ll never get the peace—because I’m on my way up, and I’m weighed down.
The psalmist said,
“Deliver my soul, O Lord, from lying lips, and from a deceitful tongue.” (Psalm 120:2, KJV)
Even back in Bible times, they had liars. You couldn’t even tell what was truth and what was a lie. Sound familiar?
On one hand, there are good things happening in your life. On the other, there’s something heavy. You’re on the way up, but weighed down.
Calling God in Every Place
Let me illustrate this with a picture. We sing, “I call God on the mountain. I call God in the valley. I call God on the good days.” Don’t forget those! Sometimes the moments of victory make us more vulnerable than moments of defeat.
Because in defeat, you’re dependent on God—but in victory, you sometimes forget who gave it to you.
You can call God anywhere. “I call God in the kitchen. I call God in the bathroom.” You can say that! The Lord can go where He wants to and do what He wants. He gave me a lot of sermons in the bathroom!
“Call unto me, and I will answer thee, and show thee great and mighty things, which thou knowest not.” (Jeremiah 33:3, KJV)
Peaks and Valleys
Now, look at this: the mountain and the valleys look like this. If you go into a hospital and they check your heartbeat, you’ll see peaks and valleys on the monitor. That’s what life looks like.
Both the peaks and valleys are necessary for life to be present—the ascent and the lament.
Sometimes, all it takes is one text message, one comment, one unexpected word—and you go from praising to pouting, from “I trust God” to “God, where are You?”
But that doesn’t mean God left.
Faith lives between the prayer and the answer.
“Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” (Hebrews 11:1, KJV)
Your heart keeps beating—peaks and valleys—and so does your faith. Both are signs that you’re alive.
Ordered Steps and Millisecond Miracles
There are peaks and valleys in your life while you are journeying through this pilgrim experience of being human. You keep thinking something’s wrong with you, but it’s not. You’re not broken. Both steps—the one up and the one down—are ordered by the Lord.
“The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord: and he delighteth in his way.” (Psalm 37:23, KJV)
You’re doing better with your health, but worse in your mind. Better with your money, but worse with your time. God is in both.
You think God only works by seasons, but He works by seconds. In fact, by milliseconds. He’s the God who beats inside your heart—not once a season, not once a second, but in every millisecond.
So, the reason I praise Him isn’t because I’m on the mountain nonstop—but because God can do a miracle in a millisecond.
He’s a millisecond, miracle-working, way-making, covenant-keeping, never-leaving, never-forsaking God!
“Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and today, and forever.” (Hebrews 13:8, KJV)
God Is Here—Even in the Lows
Back to Psalm 120:
“In my distress I cried unto the Lord, and he heard me.” (Psalm 120:1, KJV)
He says, “He answered me”—past tense. But in verse 2, he still has a problem. Why? Because God’s answer can exist before the visible proof shows up.
The Devil whispers, “God is not here. Not in this place. Not in this hospital. Not in this valley.” But he’s lying. God is here.
He’s the God of the peaks and the valleys. The God of the ascent and the lament. The God of the millisecond and the miracle.
So when the Devil says, “Not here,” tell him, “He heard.”
Reflection Questions
- What does it mean to “look for God in the lows”?
- How can both the ascent and lament exist in the same moment of faith?
- Why does the psalmist say, “He answered me,” even before seeing results?
- How can remembering that God works in milliseconds change your outlook?
- In what “low” place of your life do you need to remind yourself, “He heard”?
