Lent Day 36: We Are an Offering (III)

On this thirty-sixth day of our lenten journey, I am grateful to find that the Father's comfort is near to me -- weary and broken. I glorify the name of the Lord because the Holy Spirit continues to steady my slippery feet as I trudge upward this final stretch toward Holy Week. 

Praise the name of Jesus!

The past few days have brought me to a verdant field.  I have been harvesting a grace-filled crop through the lines of a most life-inspiring lenten chorus written by Dwight Liles and entitled We Are an Offering. I am grateful for the Spirit's instruction.

Today, I am led to focus on the phrase below:

"We lift our hands . . ."

In that gesture, I join psalmist David who cried out to God when he was in the Desert of Judah:

"Because Your love is better than life,

my lips will glorify You.

I will praise You as long as I live,

and in Your name I will lift up my hands."

Psalm 63:3-4, NIV

Why did David promise to lift up his hands?

The NIV Study Bible commentators advance that "from ancient times, upraised hands have revealed both praise and petition." Perhaps, David might have wanted to use his hands to express both his utter reliance upon God and his total reverence for Him. The act of lifting his hands might have symbolized a hopeful countenance and expectant trust in God -- that is, God would fill David's hands with His abundant blessings.

Sure enough, God has indeed poured untold blessings into David's hands -- the best of which is the granting of the Messiah to Israel and to the whole world through the line of David. Through David's hands, God chose to build His family, His spiritual house.

What grace!

What wisdom!

What provision!

What understanding!

Perhaps, lenten thought is calling you and me to surrender our hands to God because the Father is in the business of building His spiritual house through human beings.

"The wise woman builds her house,

but with her own hands the foolish one tears hers down."

Proverbs 14:1, NIV

The above verse depicts two kinds of women: a wise one and a foolish one. The wise one builds her home while the foolish one destroys hers—both of them rely on their hands for the outcome of their work. As we—the bride of Christ—focus on offering our hands to the Father today, what type of a woman can we honestly say that we portray?

With one selfish decision, two men wrecked the lives of countless Oklahomans on April 19, 1995 through the Oklahoma City bombing—the loss is still palpable today. The grief is real in the hearts of survivors everywhere and one has to only walk by the memorial in Oklahoma City for fresh tears to flow. Their hands, created for fruitfulness and growth to the glory of God, became instruments of terror and mass destruction.

Sadly, we often mirror the foolishness displayed in the above story. We shove, crush, slap, mishandle, squeeze, strangle, blow up, and murder countless individuals in a multitude of ways—figuratively speaking. Instead of using our hands to feed the poor, heal the sick, and serve the Master, we allow them to become instruments of darkness because of our selfishness.

In contrast, with one selfless and gracious act, Christ allowed Himself to be broken on our behalf so that we can be made whole, all the while growing and producing every kind of good fruit. Through His agape love, which is “vast, unmeasured, boundless, free,” He has provided the soil for real, authentic, and genuine fruitfulness. Firmly planted and established in it, the Church can be a truly good Samaritan—going the extra mile in service and growing in good deeds, knowing that anything good that flows out of us comes directly from Christ’s unending love.

May we be humbled to use our hands productively for Christ! May we also understand that our striving to directly inspire and assist others is all but secondary to that which they need most from us! May we see that the greatest need of spouses, children, relatives, friends, colleagues, students, and all others is the authenticity or purity of our own spiritual walk! Let us pray that our obedience to God in everything might become the work our hands offer to our Father as He builds His house through us.

Father, we join Paul in imploring You to grant that people everywhere would lift up holy hands in prayer -- hands that You have purified through the Cross; hands that You are sanctifying through the Holy Spirit and the ministry of the Word; hands that You will glorify once and for all on the day of the Lord. May all such hands reveal hearts that are committed to grace, forgiveness, and reconciliation. May they speak of individuals whose voices do more than make music in buildings or centers of worship, but also reverberate Your love to all people in need of You. May our hands be used by You to continue building and strengthening Your spiritual house. In Christ alone, we pray. Amen!