Let us lift up our hearts and hands to God in Heaven. (Lamentations 3:41)

Our hearts are located somewhat left of the center of our chests. They are the pumps that receive and deliver life giving blood to all the other parts of our bodies. For thousands of years the heart has been poetically associated with our very lives and with all of our loves. When the author of Lamentations wrote “Let us lift up our hearts,”heis suggesting something that he believes is entirely spiritually possible.

What does it mean to “lift up our hearts”? Is it simply to focus attention on the idea of God, or is there more?

Every time I water drooping flowers in the garden, and then see them with lifted up faces from their drink, it gives me real satisfaction. I imagine that God, too, experiences a satisfaction when we lift our hearts and hands to Him. The difference is in the shower. My shower of water is vital to the lives of the flowers, while the lifting of heart and hands to God is vital to our spiritual lives. Our “hearts” are the repository of the Holy Spirit of God. When we respond to His Spirit it is a reaching out to God for His life giving Spirit to renew the Spirit that He has already planted in us. Lifting our hearts and hands is simply responding to God’s heart and hands in our lives .

The prophet of Lamentations was writing at a devastating time in the life of Israel, as the nation had been smashed, the temple and much of Jerusalem destroyed and the people sent into exile. His cry to “Lift up our hearts” is sent to a people who identified themselves with the God of Moses, but had gone astray.

And He who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for God’s people in accordance with the will of God. ( Romans 8:27) It is the Spirit who helps us to lift up our hearts, for God alone knows the workings of our hearts and minds and hands. Jeremiah himself, the likely author of Lamentations, experienced the Holy Spirit at a young age. When he broke through his lamenting to say “Let us lift up our hearts to God,” it was clearly inspired by God. It’s a short passage in the midst of deep grieving and lamenting, but it is a ray of light in the darkness.

Like water on the flowers, the Holy Spirit helps us to lift up our hearts and hands to God.

Love in Him,

Prue