It's football time in...

Fall is one of my favorite times of the year. I get to celebrate my anniversary with my lovely wife, the weather cools down, and it’s college football season. The NFL is great, don’t get me wrong, but the overall stupidity level of fans makes the passion, people, and the atmosphere of the college game so much more enticing to me.  Fortunately for me, the only real football left in the country is in the southeast where I live. If you did not know, I am a huge fan of the Alabama Crimson Tide (if you aren’t, we welcome you to the bandwagon at any time). My wife, however, is a Vol fan, but I’ll save her some day.

I am not here, however, just to talk football. I would rather focus on fans. What is the most thrilling moment of a football game? Scoring a touchdown. What is the typical reaction when your team scores? We leap to our feet and throw our hands in the air. Raising your hands is such a perfect reaction that the officials signal a score with uplifted hands.

Why, then, do so many of us, myself included, feel so uncomfortable raising our hands when we are worshipping with the body of believers? Below I offer some suggestions.

We aren’t actually all fellow believers.

This may sound surprising, but it is possible that not everyone in the church building is actually a believer. Some people may not understand the need to raise their hands to God because they do not know Him. We should not be so quick to assume that because we see someone every Sunday morning that they are saved.

1 John 3:9-10; Galatians 5:22-23

We don’t understand the purpose.

How often do leaders in the church explain why raised hands are important? Not very often. What is the international response when someone has a gun pointed at them? They raise their hands. But, why? It is a sign of surrender and submission to the authority of the person in power. Likewise, when we raise our hands in worship that act does not accomplish anything, but with the right heart is representative of our heart of surrender to God. We humbly submit to Him.

We don’t feel comfortable.

This is the area that I struggle with the most. Raising my hands in worship has always been something that made me feel uncomfortable. Part of me feels like everyone’s eyes would go straight to me if I did it. I also am never sure if I am raising my hands for the right reasons, whether for show or worship, and that scares me as well. Whatever the reason, this is a common response. Raising hands pulls us out of our comfort zone. It makes us vulnerable and open before the church and before God.

We think others are fake.

T-Pain certainly understands that when everybody's
hands go up... They stay there.

Sometimes during worship I can become very easily distracted by others around me. Often I find myself looking around the room and seeing the way they worship. Many times it appears they are just raising their hands for show, something I have done from time to time. It is easy to convince ourselves that we must raise a hand to fit in or make our worship count, but God does not require any particular work to legitimize our worship of Him. While there are certainly others around us who may not be worshipping honestly or are over-exaggerating their worship because they feel they must, we must remember that God looks at each heart individually. We should worship freely without care for those around us. We must be bold.

While that was certainly not exhaustive, I do think that covers some of the major reasons there is little expression during worship. What are the reasons we should raise our hands? Again this list won’t cover everything.

·      It’s a sign of surrender to God. We are letting Him be in charge.
·      It’s a sign of personal sacrifice. We offer our hands to Him.
·      It puts us in a vulnerable position, which is a healthy place to be when standing before Almighty God.
·      It’s mentioned in the Bible as a valid form of worship and therefore is acceptable and encouraged.
·      It’s a natural response of praise and should be directed toward our Creator.

After all of this has been said you may still ask, “That doesn’t mean I HAVE to raise my hands, does it?” I suppose the short answer to that would be no, but I would ask one question. Why would you not want to? If you are so busy legitimately worshipping God in other ways that you simply do not have time to lift your hands to Him, please continue. But if you are looking for a reason or an excuse not to raise your hands, then that may be exactly what God wants from you. He desires that you are willing to sacrifice your comfort and control that He may be praised. He looks at your heart. Is your heart completely His?

Below is my prayer for myself this week. If you would like to use it as well, please feel free.

May my prayer be set before you like incense;

       may the lifting up of my hands be like the evening sacrifice.

             Psalm 141:2