We raise our hands up in the air for a variety of reasons. When our football team scores a touchdown, we just might hold both hands up with the referee in the symbol representing the touchdown. When we get excited, we might throw our hands up in the air, or do a fist pump or two into the air. If we are told to surrender, we put our hands up in the air, but that is much more a sign of defeat than these others so far.
So it's interesting that the author of Psalm 141 would write the following words. "Let my prayer be counted as incense before you, and the lifting up of my hands as the evening sacrifice." Here, the lifting up of my hands is for yet another reason. It is the plea and supplication made to God. Holding up the hands is like the prayer ascending before God. It is seen as a sacrifice to the LORD God.
Typically, we think of prayer along the lines of asking of God, giving thanks to God, and the like. The idea of prayer as sacrifice may be somewhat unusual to our thinking. Sure, the giving up of our time may be the sacrifice we see, but is there more than that to it? What kind of sacrifice is the lifting up of my hands? What kind of sacrifice is the offering of my prayer?
As David wrote these words, it's very likely that his intent here is more along the lines of the giving of one's whole life to God. When we lift up our hands to God, the prayer that we are offering is that of our very own selves. We sacrifice our lives, our wants, and our hopes, and ask that God would give us His life, and make us to want those things that He wants. We ask God to give us, not the hope that we would dream of, but the hope that He has prepared for us. That is the sacrifice that we offer to Him, especially in this kind of prayer.
Lifting up hands during prayer is not a new thing. The idea of sacrificing our own lives to God for His working and doing isn't new. That's something, though, that we need constant encouragement to bring about. Even though we know that Jesus' sacrifice makes us right with God, the struggle with our sinful nature makes us want to keep our hands down, and our lives to ourselves.
May that lifting up of my hands be a willing indication of a life that wants to be lived according to God's will and design, because I am a new creation in Jesus!
So it's interesting that the author of Psalm 141 would write the following words. "Let my prayer be counted as incense before you, and the lifting up of my hands as the evening sacrifice." Here, the lifting up of my hands is for yet another reason. It is the plea and supplication made to God. Holding up the hands is like the prayer ascending before God. It is seen as a sacrifice to the LORD God.
Typically, we think of prayer along the lines of asking of God, giving thanks to God, and the like. The idea of prayer as sacrifice may be somewhat unusual to our thinking. Sure, the giving up of our time may be the sacrifice we see, but is there more than that to it? What kind of sacrifice is the lifting up of my hands? What kind of sacrifice is the offering of my prayer?
As David wrote these words, it's very likely that his intent here is more along the lines of the giving of one's whole life to God. When we lift up our hands to God, the prayer that we are offering is that of our very own selves. We sacrifice our lives, our wants, and our hopes, and ask that God would give us His life, and make us to want those things that He wants. We ask God to give us, not the hope that we would dream of, but the hope that He has prepared for us. That is the sacrifice that we offer to Him, especially in this kind of prayer.
Lifting up hands during prayer is not a new thing. The idea of sacrificing our own lives to God for His working and doing isn't new. That's something, though, that we need constant encouragement to bring about. Even though we know that Jesus' sacrifice makes us right with God, the struggle with our sinful nature makes us want to keep our hands down, and our lives to ourselves.
May that lifting up of my hands be a willing indication of a life that wants to be lived according to God's will and design, because I am a new creation in Jesus!
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