SHADOW OF THE ALMIGHTY

"He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High will rest in the shadow of the Almighty, I will say of the Lord, "He is my refuge and my fortress, my God, in whom I trust." Psalm 91:1,2

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Location: WESTMORELAND, Tennessee, United States

Saturday, July 08, 2006

Lifting Holy Hands

Back in April I did a post dealing with posture in prayer. One thing I didn’t touch on in that article was lifting hands in prayer. I had never seen anyone from our tribe pray with lifted hand(s) until recently. (Maybe its because I always keep my eyes closed) Now before I go any further let me say that I know that the posture of the heart is what is important to God. But I can’t help but wonder why it has never been a practice within my tribe? We are the folks that preach loud and long to , "Speak where the Bible speaks and be silent where the Bible is silent." Well the Bible isn’t silent on this one. Take a look... "I will praise you as long as I live, and in your name I will lift up my hands." (Ps. 63:4) "I call to you, O Lord, everyday; I spread out my hands to you." (Ps. 88:9) "Lift up your hands in the sanctuary and praise the Lord." (Ps. 134:2) "Ezra praised the Lord, the great God; and all the people lifted their hands and responded, ’Amen! Amen!’" (Neh. 8:6) "Let us lift up our heart with our hands unto God in the heavens." (Lam. 3:41 KJV) "I fell on my knees with my hands spread out to the Lord my God and prayed." (Ezra 9:5-6) "Solomon knelt down before the whole assembly of Israel and spread out his hands toward heaven." (2 Chron. 6:13) "As long as Moses held up his hands, the Israelites were winning, but whenever he lowered his hands, the Amalekites were winning. When Moses' hands grew tired, they took a stone and put it under him and he sat on it. Aaron and Hur held his hands up – one on one side, one on the other – so that his hands remained steady till sunset. So Joshua overcame the Amalekite army with the sword ... Moses built an altar and called it The Lord is my Banner. He said, ’For hands were lifted up to the throne of the Lord.’" (Ex. 17:11-16) "I want men everywhere to lift up holy hands in prayer." (1Tim. 2:8) "Everyday," David says in Psalm 88:9, "I call to you and spread out my hands to you." Note the following from Buddy Owen in an article adapted from his book, "The Way Of The Worshiper" "Look at your hands. They aren’t going to hurt you; just look at them for a moment. Magnificent aren’t they? Who gave us our hands? God gave them to us. What do we do with our hands? Well, we work with our hands. We feed ourselves with our hands. We play with our hands. We give gifts and receive gifts with our hands. We show affection with our hands. We also fight with our hands. We sin with our hands. Why are we so hesitant to worship God with our hands? Lifting our hands to God is a biblical posture of prayer. It is another physical demonstration of a spiritual truth. Just as we bow our hearts when we bow our knees, so we lift our hearts when we lift our hands (Lam. 3:41). By kneeling before God and lifting our hands to him, we are presenting our bodies to God as a spiritual act of worship. " When we lift our hands with palms open it is a physical display of openness. As with kneeling in prayer, lifting our hands is simply another posture of devotion, humility and worship.

7 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

whether lifting hands or kneeling or both we should always remember who we are and just who we are talking to.

7/09/2006 06:10:00 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Brother, it is a biblical thing to do. We have not in general made it a part of our biblical tradition. Amazing what we see when we read the Bible.

7/09/2006 07:59:00 PM  
Blogger Lee Hodges said...

Laymond you are so right. He and He alone is the focus regarless of our posture.

Jim, amazing in deed my brother! Thanks for stopping by.

7/09/2006 09:52:00 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

THANK YOU! I think lifting my hands to God really adds a richness to our time together... so full of history and symbolism. And to tell you the truth, sometimes I just have to - mostly in my alone worship times. It'll take awhile for me to feel that freedom in the worship community setting... Too many distractions (how will this be seen, will I be drawing too much attention to myself) that I need to get over.

I (tried to) link to this post on my blog post for today. Hopefully it'll work.

Thankful for your life and your faith!

7/10/2006 10:49:00 AM  
Blogger Lee Hodges said...

Angie, I too can relate to the questions about,(how will this be seen, will I be drawing too much attention to myself), I have had them too. But when we lift hands in worship to God and that is our purpose and intent, then maybe if someone peeks and sees you, that would be a good thing. I know we fear rocking the boat, but we should never let that keep us from following Biblical principles clearly stated in the text.

7/10/2006 12:32:00 PM  
Blogger Lee Hodges said...

I received the following email from my friend and brother in the Lord Carl Wade.

Lee: Your "Lifting Holy Hands" article is excellent. All should read it. In my years as a conservative legalist I would have been very uncomfortable and all bend out of shape thinking of doing such ....in worship! Now - after study and I believe maturing (more) in Christ - I feel my worship would be diminished if I didn't. I believe it is a personal choice and no person should feel compelled to go against their conscience. No sin if you don't and no sin if you do!

Peace
Carl

7/11/2006 08:04:00 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Did these people in the bible lift up their hands because they had to or because they wanted to did Jesus give any commands on it? Am i a bad christian if i don't? It's nice to show that you are surrendered to God but i have lifted up my hands in worship out of impulse and my heart wasn't there just like the religious leaders in Jesus' day honored God with there lips but there hearts were far from him. This may have nothing to do with this but does the Law apply to everyone or only to those who know it and have heard it?

8/18/2007 12:42:00 PM  

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