Dancing in Praise of God, Moving to the Spirit’s Beat

At one of the outdoor worship services at Lewis Center, the “Band on Hand” played a very lively praise song.  I don’t remember which one it was, but I was tapping my toes and bouncing in my seat in the car.  Most of the adults were content to sit in their seats.

One little girl, about five years old, started dancing.  The music spoke to her in such a way she just had to move with joy.  She wasn’t content to dance alone.  She went over to her older brother and invited him to dance with her.  At first he refused, but then, because of his love for his sister or maybe because the music moved him as well, he got up and started dancing.  I delighted in watching the two of them dancing – praising God in an un-self-conscious way.  Moving to the beat of the Holy Spirit within them.

Have you ever been so delighted in God that you had to dance?  David is probably the most famous story of a person dancing in the Bible, but the Bible is full of admonitions to dance:

Let them praise his name with dancing, making melody to him with tambourine and lyre!  Psalm 149:3

Praise him with tambourine and dance; praise him with strings and pipe!  Psalm 150:4

You have turned for me my mourning into dancing; you have loosed my sackcloth and clothed me with gladness.  Psalm 30:11

I will build you up again, and you, Virgin Israel, will be rebuilt.  Again you will take up your timbrels and go out to dance with the joyful. Jeremiah 31:4
“Dance with the joyful.”  Dancing in praise means we have to forget ourselves and just focus on God.  Focus on the joy and gratitude and praise that comes from all that God has done for us and all that God has given us.  The older we get the less likely we are to dance in joy and praise.  We get self-conscious – like other people would care if we are dancing.  We get stiff in our bodies and in our minds.  Focusing on ourselves instead of on God.
So today I want to encourage you to try dancing in praise.  Go to a private place, put on your liveliest Christian music, and let yourself go.  Think of God instead of yourself.  Dance your joy.  If you don’t think you can do it, imagine that little dancing girl inviting you to enter into the joy of the Lord.  Dance with the joyful until you become joy-filled.  And once you have praised God in dance, consider inviting someone else to dance as well.