PRAISE! #1 - movement
In this season at St Nic’s, we’re really feeling that we’re entering into a season of praise, that shakes up the way we worship, releasing and freeing us to live lives devoted to praising God! So, over the next four weeks, we’ll be looking at how we can use our movement, hands, shouts and voices to bring praise to the Lord…
At the team night a few weeks ago, I was speaking about how we can learn so much from how children worship with their whole bodies, and that this is an incredibly Biblical practice too! I have come to truly believe, through my year here, that our praise is released more and more freely as we worship more freely with our bodies – whether that’s dancing, raising our hands, a gentle sway, or simply taking our hands out of our pockets! At our team night, I also reflected on perhaps one of the most prominent worshipers in the Bible, David…
“David was dancing before the LORD with all his might, while he and all Israel were bringing up the ark of the LORD with shouts and the sound of trumpets…
‘I will celebrate before the LORD. I will become even more undignified than this, and I will be humiliated in my own eyes’’”
2 Samuel 6:14-15; 21b-22
Here we see the king, being undignified and ‘humiliated in his own eyes’, all in PRAISE of the Lord. He recognises that sacrificing his dignity, self-image and reputation is more than worth it to fully praise God – it sounds pretty similar to what Jesus sacrificed on the cross, doesn’t it? Firm and secure in his identity in the Lord, David worships in total freedom and with overflowing joy – all for God’s praise and glory. He faces backlash from his own wife, but that doesn’t stop him from committing his life to the praise of the Lord (v22).
So, my question to you for this week – how can you push yourself out of your comfort zone to use your body in sacrificial praise of the Lord? What does that look like for you, right now? Do you have any safety blankets in worship, that are stopping you from freely using your body in worship? Ask God to break and remove those things, and release you into free, sacrificial praise of Him.