I will praise you as long as I live, and in your name I will lift up my hands. Psalm 63:4
Well, Christmas is over and most of you are heading back to school or work or to the same routine we have been doing before the holiday season. As we look back over the last few weeks and reflect on 2017 and look ahead to 2018, I want to encourage you to look at things a little differently. When Jesus was born, everything changed in a moment. We were given an opportunity to be known, accepted, and forgiven. Just think, the God that created everything and made us in His very image came to bring us life and hope. When we experience His love, we can’t help but live differently.
I grew up in a fairly conservative Methodist church. I mean, we thought we were cutting edge, but really we were worshipping God the way we always had. In fact, each Sunday was carefully planned out according to a lectionary (just a fancy list that showed what scriptures and verses were to be used throughout the church year.) In fact, just about every Sunday had a specific name or event attached to it. The church was well ordered and people were expected to behave in certain ways. For me as a child, that meant every Saturday night, we would take black shoe polish and get our shoes shined, ready to wear our best to God’s house in the morning. When we got to church, there were certain behaviors that would cause the swift hand of my dad or mom to quickly correct the offense (yawning during the message, opening candy papers, drawing on the pages of the hymnbook, etc…) And we never, ever, ever, dared move or raise our hands.
I’ve thought about how worship and church has changed over the now decades of my life. While I often miss some of the “ordered-ness” of my early church, I’m glad that we are more free to worship God and to express that worship in different displays.
David says in Psalm 63, You, God, are my God, earnestly I seek you; I thirst for you, my whole being longs for you, in a dry and parched land where there is no water. I have seen you in the sanctuary and beheld your power and your glory. Because your love is better than life, my lips will glorify you. I will praise you as long as I live, and in your name I will lift up my hands.
Paul, in the New Testament says, Therefore I want the men everywhere to pray, lifting up holy hands without anger or disputing. Throughout the Bible, we see people responding to God by lifting their hands. I’ve thought about this a lot and I believe that raising our hands signifies two very important actions.
The first is victory. As I was watched Georgia (Go Dawgs!) beat a highly talked about Oklahoma team on Monday, Margie, Sandra, Steve and I began to high five around the room. We were celebrating a wonderful victory. The coming of Jesus brought us victory over sin, death and hell. What a wonderful, undeserved gift from the Father. We should be raising our hands in victory over the things that have held us captive for so long.
The second attitude reflected in raising our hands is surrender. As a boy watching all of those cops and robbers shows (usually in black and white – remember Dragnet?) it would always end with the good guys stopping the bad guys and telling them to put their hands up, to surrender. For us today, we need to stop running from God, from trying to do things our way and simply raise our hands up in holy surrender. Surrender to a God that loves us, to a God that wants us, to a God that is worthy of all of our praise.
There is a story in the Bible in Exodus 17 where Joshua is going to battle against the Amalekites. As long as Moses had his arms raised, Joshua would be winning. However, when Moses’ arms grew tired and came down, the Amalekites would take the advantage. Seeing this, Aaron and Hur came along side of Moses and each one held up his arms, one on each side. Moses couldn’t do it on his own, he needed help to get through the battle. Many of us are facing battles of our own. Health, finances, marriage and family issues – not only do we need God, but we need each other. Coming together in worship each week should be a priority as we get strength from and for each other. We are the body of Christ and together we encourage one another.
So, how about you? What will be different this year? Will it be another year like last year or will this be a time of victory and surrender? Let me see a show of hands…