CityLight Church’s One Year Bible Reading Plan
Thursday, December 15th, 2016
Micah 1:1-4:13
Revelation 6:1-17
Psalm 134:1-3
Proverbs 30:1-4
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Commentary from Pastor Michael White:
Lift up your hands in the sanctuary, and bless the Lord. – Ps 134:2
Why do we lift up our hands when we worship?
1) It’s a sign of surrender.
When you want to protect yourself, you wrap your arms around your body. When you want to expose yourself, you lift your arms up in the air. When we lift our hands in worship, we let God know that we are willing to expose our hearts to Him so He can change us, from the inside out.
2) It’s an expression of victory.
Scientists have found that raising our hands above our heads is an instinctive reaction to victory.[1] In a 2004 study, researchers even found that blind athletes – who could never have learned this behavior from watching others – instinctively “tilted their heads up, smiled, lifted their arms, clenched their fists and puffed out their chests.”[2] When we lift our hands in worship, we celebrate the victory Jesus has given us on the Cross.
Apart from God, victory and surrender are mutually exclusive – it is only possible to express victory when we no longer have to surrender; but worship is the only place we can celebrate victory and surrender at the same time. We raise our hands to show that we are surrendered in condition, but also to acknowledge we are victorious in position. We surrender to God because He has given us the victory in Jesus Christ!
Prayer:
Father, thank You for the victorious surrender You have given me on the Cross. Help me to worship You with reckless abandon. I am victorious in life, and surrendered in worship, all of my days!
Archives
See commentary from this day in 2014: http://intelligentcharismatic.com/day-349-come-hiding/
See commentary from this day in 2015: http://intelligentcharismatic.com/day-349-full-power/
© Michael D. White, 2016. All rights reserved.