January 31, 2008
Kneeling
Before going to bed, my grandma always turned off the lights and knelt beside the bed to say her prayers. At his first sleepover, one young cousin didn’t know about Grandma’s ritual. She turned off the light and he waited and waited in the dark for her to crawl into bed. Finally he reached across the bed and touching the hair on the top of her head said, “Grandma, is that a skunk?” Last Sunday Dr. Charles Stanley’s televised message included thoughts about praying on your knees. He reminded the audience, “that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth…” (Phil 2:10 NIV) He confirmed you can pray standing and you can pray lying down, but if you don’t ever pray while kneeling, why don’t you? Is pride holding you back? Dr. Stanley’s advice, “Start practicing.”
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Gail;
-----I can hear all the moans and groans, “Oh yah, oh yah. You think your prayers will be better because of your body position. Sheesh. How antiquated!” While dedicating the Temple he had built for the Lord, Solomon placed a bronze platform in the outer court and knelt upon it before all the people to pray to the Lord. And all of the people went to their knees, faces to the ground, when they saw God’s glory entering the Temple. A leper came and knelt before Jesus to ask for healing. A ruler knelt before Him to ask for his daughter to be raised. On her knees a Canaanite woman asked Jesus to cast demons from her daughter. A father of a demon possessed child knelt before Him. Jesus knelt in the Garden and prayed, Paul knelt with the Ephesians and prayed, and when leaving Tyre, Paul knelt with the disciples, and their wives and children, and prayed. The Psalmist proclaims, “Come, let us bow down in worship, let us kneel before the Lord our Maker…” (Psalms 95:6.) There seems to be something about kneeling that agrees with the Scriptures. The little tiff between Mordecai and Haman was exposed when Mordecai would not kneel before Haman to pay him honor. In the least, this is what kneeling is, a payment of honor. By those who knelt before Jesus with their needs, it also was the communication of contrition. And in the most, it is a communication of worship.
-----But if we were to become sure that kneeling might make our prayers better, we need to remember the mother of Zebedee’s sons knelt before Jesus to ask special privileges in heaven for her boys. Also, those who put the crown of thorns on His head and spit upon Him knelt before Him and mocked Him. Kneeling is not magic. It is only communication.
-----Communication tends to come from within the heart. If there is contriteness, respect, honor, and worship there, if those are worthy of communication, why not engage the body in such expression? The body is part of the soul, and body language is an acknowledged reality. I tend to agree with you and Dr. Stanley, “Why not?” The reluctance to get on the knees to pray, when getting on the knees seems appropriate, is also a communication from the heart. It is also a show of respect and honor, but to one’s own ideas and reasons, rather than to the Lord. I know how quickly my knees will hit the turf when my eyes first behold Him. I feel it is good today for me to practice a self-controlled descent so the drop on That Day won’t be quite as bone jarring.
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