Worship

I can remember being a little girl and asking my mom one day, "Why do people raise their hands during church?" She said it was for many different reasons, some to praise God, to thank Him, to feel close to him, and more. Being young I did not understand that concept. Sometimes I thought it was silly of people. My dad even did it one service and I can remember being embarrassed that he had stood up while the rest of the congregation was sitting and raised his hands to God. Growing up I realized that he was reaching out for God and singing "I exalt Thee" with all that he could. The first time I ever raised my hands to worship God was my freshman year of high school in Nashville, TN during a missions trip. I opened up my heart to God and raised my hands to praise and worship Him with all that I could. During high school I grew in my relationship with God and being close to Him.

Since being in college I have sometimes forgot how to worship and praise God will all that I have. I get nervous of what people will think of me when I raise my hands to worship and that is not a good thing. The people around me are here to worship and sing out to God just as much as me and the fear inside of me is Satan trying to make me stand back from God. So tonight during Sanctuary I prayed at the beginning for God to allow me to worship Him and not worry about those around me. At times I got scared but I closed my eyes and just focused on God. During the song Psalm 13 my hands were raised in the air worshipping God and praying the words being sung from my lips to God. I wanted to sing as loud as I could and give it all up to Him.

Then during another song, You hold me now by hillsong, I just sat down and prayed to God and actually gave it all to Him. To focus the best I could I began to pray aloud so I could focus and at certain points the song that was being sung would resonate through my lips. Prayers for me and others came to my lips. Some of the words I did not even know were coming out. I felt like the Holy Spirit had helped me develop my words. I realized at that moment once again how important it is to lift up our concerns and needs in prayer to God. He longs for us to talk to Him and being so open with Him and longing so much for Him is so important.

God is so amazing and I wish words could describe Him. As Romans 8:6 say, "In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express."