PRESSING ON TO HIGHER GROUND
Part 6

“And one of them some the servant of the high priest, and cut off his right ear. And Jesus answered and said, Suffer ye thus far. And he touched his ear and healed him”
(Luke 22:50,51).

We continue discovering Scriptures about lifting up our hands.

e) We lift up our hands in affirmation to truth

Ezra 8:6: “And Ezra blessed the LORD, the great God. And ALL THE PEOPLE answered, Amen, Amen, with lifting up their hands . . .”

Do you find you like to do this? I love to raise my hands in agreement when someone is speaking the truth, don’t you? Oh yes, we can agree in our hearts and nod our heads, but did you know that you are allowed to raise your hand? It’s biblical. And there’s something about doing some action! Why don’t you try it in church one day? You can even shout Amen as the people in Jerusalem did! You’ll only have a riot or a revival. More likely a revival!

f). We lift up our hands to bless others

Leviticus 9:22: “And Aaron lifted up his hand toward the people and blessed them.”

1 Kings 8:54: “And it was so, that when Solomon had made an end of praying all this prayer and supplication unto the LORD, he arose from before the altar of the LORD from kneeling of his knees with his hands spread up to heaven. And he stood, and blessed all the congregation of Israel with a loud voice, saying . . .” Read also 2 Samuel 6:7-20.

Luke 24:50: “And Jesus led them out as far as to Bethany, and he lifted up his hands, and blessed them.”

It is a lovely thing to lay your hands on those you pray for and bless in the name of the Lord.

g) We lift up our hands to bless our children

Don’t you love this Scripture in Mark 10:16: “And Jesus took them (the little children) up in his arms, put his hands upon them, and blessed them.” The Passion translation says: “Then he embraced (caressed) each child, and laying his hands on them, he lovingly blessed each one.” Read also Luke 18:15, 16.

h) We lift up our hands to serve others and help those in need

I love the way God’s Word is so practical and tangible. God writes words to us that get right down into the nitty gritty of how we live. 1 Peter 4:8 says: “And above all things have fervent love among yourselves.” The word fervent in this passage is “ektenes” and means “to stretch out, to extend the hand, intense.”

Love is more than a feeling. Love is action. If we have fervent love, we’ll be stretching out our hands. Of course, we do this all day long as mothers, don’t we? We are always reaching out for babies. We nurse them, hold them to us, or wear them in a baby carrier more than we leave them lying on their own. We continually reach out our arms to touch, caress, and hug our children. We cook for them and serve them food. We clean the house. This is love in action.

We extend our hands in hospitality. Immediately after reading “fervent love,” we read the admonition to “Use hospitality one to another without grudging.” Hospitality doesn’t just happen. You have to cook. You have to prepare a table. Yes, you have to extend your hands. Get them working. But this is fervent love. It is biblical Christianity. It is the lifestyle of the early church. It is part of our “one anothering faith (Romans 1:12).

Our God is an hospitable God. He loves to reach forth His hands to bless people, but He is looking for our hands to use here on earth.

The virtuous woman “STRETCHES out her hand to the poor; yea she REACHES forth her hands to the needy” (Proverbs 31: 20).

When God reveals the picture of the lifestyle of the godly woman, we read that she reaches out her hands to embrace children, practice hospitality, wash the saints’ feet, relieve the afflicted and help those in distress, and continually stretches out her hands to all kinds of good works (1 Timothy 5;10). Nothing happens without reaching out our hands.

i)  We lift up our hands to pray for the sick

We reach out our hands in fervent love when we pray for the sick. The word is used in Matthew 8:3 when Jesus touched the leper: “And Jesus put forth (ekteino) his hand and touched him, saying, I will; be thou clean. And immediately his leprosy was cleansed.” Jesus was willing to touch the leper.

We should always be ready to touch or lay our hands on those who are sick and pray for them, beginning in the home with our families of course. God loves to “stretches forth His hand to heal (Acts 4:30).

PRAYER:

“Dear Father, Please help me to be always ready to reach forth my hands. You want me to reach forth my hands in praise to You. You want me to reach forth my hands to bless and pray for others. You want me get my hands working and reach them forth to serve others. Please anoint my hands to be “reaching forth” and “stretching forth” hands. Amen.”

AFFIRMATION: