Lift up your hands to the holy place and bless the Lord! Psalm 134:2 ESV

Those are the opening lines from a chorus I love to sing. God’s word tells us to lift up our hands but do you ever stop to wonder why? Here are the four reasons that I came up with. Maybe you have some other ideas of your own and I would love hearing them.

A) Praise -We lift up our hands when we worship with other believers. And in this psalm it tells us to do this at night but any time is the right time to praise God.

B) Surrender – When the police officer draws out his gun and yells, “Show me your hands!” we lift up our hands to show we are surrendering. This might not be in church in fact when the disciples left their nets to follow Jesus; they surrendered their careers right in the middle of a work day.

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C) Availability – When my teacher called my name it was usually wrong (who can pronounce Caligiuri?) but I knew she was calling on me so I lifted up my hand. “Here!” I shouted. Isaiah answers God in much the same way; “Here I am Lord: Send me.

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D) Love – At the end of long work days I would trudge home from the job, completely exhausted, in need of a shower and a meal. But when I opened our apartment door our two little boys who seemed to have no sense of smell raced up to me with their arms up shouting; “Daddy’s home! Daddy’s home! Pick me up Daddy!” 

Jesus calls to each of us to come to Him and we will find rest. We are not only welcomed into His presence; He loves to hear us run to the door when He knocks crying; ” Abba’s home! Abba’s home! Pick me up Father I need you again today!”