I attended Women of Faith last weekend -- a pretty good weekend. While there I was just wondering about hand raising during the praise and worship singing. Some people raise 1 hand, some people raise 2 hands and some people don't raise their hands. I don't think any choice is wrong, and I happen to be of the "don't raise my hands" group; it just got me to wondering about it.
Is it a "denominational" thing? Is it a taught in some churches and therefore becomes standard practice there. Some people think that it is the Holy Spirit moving people, but I can't believe that HE moved that whole group of people in red shirts but didn't move too many in my group of green shirts that happen to be of the "frozen chosen" denomination. I know the Holy Spirit speaks to me, I've heard it, but I've never heard "raise your hands now". I don't mean to offend anybody -- I was really just wondering!
A New Way To Learn Gratitude
9 years ago
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We just talked about hand raising this weekend.
I was raised as a non-hand-raiser. Everyone was solemn and quiet in church even when we sang. Then for a time we attended a church that was more "charismatic" and most of the members raised their hands.
Like you, I was told that it was the Holy Spirit's prompting that had people raising their hands and so that made no sense. Why wouldn't HE talk to me on this issue?
Well, I still don't know why, but later HE did. Maybe I wasn't ready yet before. Maybe it wasn't the right time or place? Maybe it was just that I wasn't listening to Him on that issue because it never occurred to me that I should raise my hands and later because I was uncomfortable with the idea.
What I do know is that nowadays, sometimes I feel the prompting to raise my hands and sometimes I don't. Sometimes, rarely, I raise my hands anyway, not to be fake like I used to think people were being, but to sort of reach out to Him. Usually I don't raise my hands at all, but I'm doing it more and more often. Sometimes when I feel the prompting to do it I wait too long to obey and the song is over. Sometimes I just don't feel the prompting.
When I do raise my hands, it may be one or two hands depending on how willing I am to just submit to Him or how willing I am to lose dignity and do it. Sometimes I will only raise one hand because I'm standing close to someone and don't want to invade their space or I'm holding a child or other object that I don't want to wave in the air.
There are times that I will just turn my palms up and nothing more. That's usually because I'm feeling shy or whatever, but still want that feeling of closeness I get toward God when I actively worship Him.
Psalm 141:2, 1 Timothy 2:8, and 1 Kings 8:22 all talk about lifting hands while praying. There are also several occurrences where people fall prostrate on the floor before Him. I'm thankful that I just feel the prompting to lift my hands. I don't think I would ever feel comfortable enough to fall on the floor in public. I will admit though that there have been times where the presence of God seemed so strong that I felt the need to do it--alone at home where no one saw me.
David danced before the Lord in an undignified way and just loved God so much that he didn't care what people thought. I would love to have that deep of a love for Him. One of my new favorite songs is David Crowder's "Undignified." It's a fun song that seems to explain it all.
I'm looking forward to Heaven when we'll all be just letting go and fully worshiping God. That will be so awesome!
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