Put Your Hands in the Air....

Psalm 63:3-4
³ Because your love is better than life,
   my lips will glorify you.
⁴ I will praise you as long as I live,
   and in your name I will lift up my hands. 

Last week my husband and I attended a Chris Tomlin concert.  It was an incredible night of worship.  During the concert, speaker Louie Giglio gave an uplifting talk about worship.  The following is my attempt to summarize his words into my own.  


He started off by discussing this concept of "raising your hands" to God during worship.  Some people write it off by saying it's a denominational thing.  "The charismatics raise their hands in church..."

He went on to explain that, no....it's not a matter of denomination.  It's a "human thing".  Louie gave examples all across the world of people, from Christians to Buddhists to none of the above, raising their hands as an act of being "human".

Sporting events...Concerts...Religious Ceremonies...all across our world, humanity raises it's hands as an act of expressing emotion.  Something inside that can no longer be held in.  Something that needs to be released. 

Louie then went on to explain three reasons why we raise our hands:

1.  Surrender:  The First thing that comes to my mind is the phrase "You're under arrest".  If you think about it, the act of surrender seems to always include hands raised to heaven.  In a sense we are saying, "I give up...I am submitting to you".  How many of us need to raise our hands in surrender?  How many of us have chosen to do things our way time and time again?  It's time to give in.  It's time to surrender.

2.  Celebration: People all over the world lift their hands to celebrate.  From dancing to music concerts to football games.  It's easy to raise our hands for Penn State football...but we shy away from letting our emotions celebrate the love of our God.  It's okay to let it out.  Take some time to celebrate who God is and what He has done in your life.

3.  Desperation:  Maybe you don't feel like you can celebrate.  Maybe your life is at a difficult place right now, and you feel the sting of desperation each and every single day.  You are at the end of your rope with no where else to turn.  You're hoping for a miracle.  Today, raise your hands to God in desperation.  Remind yourself that when all else fails, He is your hope...your last hope.  And those who hope in the Lord will not be let down. 

Don't ever let your "dignity" get in the way of allowing your heart and body to worship the way they were meant to.  No matter where your heart is today...take some time to raise your hands in worship of a God who deserves it.