Art of Living #27

Åґ☂ ◎ḟ ʟ☤√ḯη❡ #27 : "Lift up your hands... and bless the LORD." (Ps.134:2).

Ѧ℘☺﹩☂◎łḯ¢ €ϰ℘øüηḓ : Many times when we go out to worship the Lord in the public meetings, we feel very much apprensive to life our hand and worship the Lord in public. It will be easy for us to do it in public if we do it in private worship first. Is it Biblically a New Testament practice? What does a seasoned apostle like Paul say about lifting up our hands to bless the Lord in the public worship? Paul says,"I desire therefore that the men pray everywhere, lifting up holy hands, without wrath and doubting." (1 Tim 2:8). This shows that men even in the first century were very much apprehensive and uncomfortable to lift up their hands. Paul the apostle desired all to lift up their holy hands and pray everywhere in all nations because all the people in the Church did not want to lift their hands freely. Lifting up our hands is an act of surrender to God that is a powerful tool that makes us to draw near to God easily. Our hands become holy to the Lord only when we choose to lift up our hands for the Lord and clap our hands when we sing a song to the Lord. Or even at times when we do not know the song we will be able to easily participate in the worship actively by clapping. Next time you worship in private just lift up your hands and close your eyes and see what happens. Suddenly you will be able to easily enter the Holy of Holies of God in the spiritual realm through your sprit-man. Lifting up our hands is a physical act which expresses to the Lord about our faith and love which we have in our hearts towards Him. If God knows the worship in our heart, why do we really need to lift up our hands. The whole of heaven watches even the slightest moment of worship and praise that arises out of this planet earth and rejoices to see men expressing their love towards God (Luke 15:10). God who sees it will be greatly glorified before the angels.

Humans always have a so called ego of the soul that controls them usually, rather than allowing the spirit-man inside them to control them. This ego will always tell, 'What will the other person who is standing near you will think when they see you lifting up your hands like a mad man in love with a God who is mad after you?' This reasoning of the soul will never please God in any way. Rather the soul should be trained by us day after day not to be too conscious of its surroundings but to become conscious of the God who is closer to us than the air we all breathe. This is the reason a man who is close to the heart of God said to His soul, "Bless the Lord, O my Soul!" (Psa 103:1). In other words, David too felt in His soul exactly the same ego as we feel in our soul, but because of a passion and extreme love he had towards the Lord, he trained his soul by commanding it to bless the Lord and be conscious of Him rather than his immediate surroundings. When you lift your hands and bless the Lord the next time, expect a great victory in your life, family, friends and your surroundings. This is the way God gave victory through Moses when He lifted up His hands in a symbolic act of surrendering the battle that the Israelites fought to the Lord (Exod 17:11). When battles come to you, you don't have to fight to win as the world says, just lift your hands and continue to bless the Lord in an act of surrender and worship. The Lord will fight the battle for you and the victory is as sure as the sun that rises up in the east every morning (Exod 14:14; 2 Chron 20:15).

“To lift up the hands” is also a gesture that expresses adoration in the context of worship. Worship means we are giving God our Worth-ship, telling him that He is worthy of all our adoration we give to Him voluntarily out of our own will. When you think of all the blessings the Lord has given to you, learn to BLESS HIM BACK DAILY. How can a mere human like us BLESS THE BLESSOR of all things? This is the privilege of the CHILDREN OF GOD only. This is the reason WE NEED TO LEARN TO LIFT UP OUR HANDS AND BLESS OUR DEAR LORD ALWAYS FOR WHO HE IS TO US. Much Blessings.....