hi friends is it just me or have you noticed that people seem to be kneeling less when they pray and I'm talking about Christians in church of course uh it used to be that during every service at some point during the service you would see the pastor and the people kneel and you go to a lot of churches that even had pews that had a kneeling pad because it was understood that when you went to church you at some point would bow before God but it seems like that in the Evangelical churches of today just
about everybody standing when they pray they might lift their hands maybe bow their heads but very few people are kneeling in prayer and I wonder if something's being lost we find it in the Bible it is extremely clear that biblical characters Old and New Testament they knelt most of the time when they formally approach God In Prayer because your posture your body language says something about your attitude you even see this in the animal kingdom if you've got an alpha dog he's got his is head up high and when the submissive dogs come over they
they cower a little bit and even in the other religions and kingdoms of the world as people approached the king they would bow themselves and some countries like China they'd get down and they would crawl in before the king with their head down before they addressed him but uh Christians now have no problem standing in the presence of the almighty when they are in supplication and I wonder if something's being lost let's find out what does the Bible say for example you you can read in Psalm 95:6 oh come let us worship and bow down
let us kneel before the Lord our maker you can read where Paul says for this cause I bow my knee unto the father of our Lord Jesus Christ in Ephesians 3:14 both in public and in private worship it's our privilege to Bow our knees before the Lord when we offer our petitions the Bible says this is the example of Jesus you can read in Luke 22:41 and he was with drawn from them about a stone's cast and he knelt down and prayed and so friends that ought to settle it right there if our Lord and
savior saw the need to kneel before God the Father how much more do we sinful Mortals need to take time in our personal devotions to kneel in prayer some other scriptures you can look in Acts 9: 40 acts 20:36 acts 21:5 it says they kneeled down and prayed in the book of Ezra when confessing his sins before God and the sins of the people Ezra knelt in prayer you can read in Daniel chapter 6 this famous story about Daniel and the Lions then as his custom was he knelt down opened his windows and prayed three
times a day a lot of people don't do it three times in a year God wants us to ReDiscover this importance of humbling ourself before the Lord a posture of reverence when we pray you can look at the story of Elijah in the Bible that Victory on Mount Carmel he knelt when he prayed and the fire came down later that day he knelt seven times and the rain came down then you can look at the story where Solomon dedicates the temple it says he the king built a platform and knelt in front of the people
the king knelt down now I should add at this point it is not necessary to always kneel When you pray you can read in the Bible that after Solomon dedicated the temple he stood and he prayed and he pronounced the benediction and he blessed the people it's not necessary to always kneel When you pray and sometimes it's just not practical I've been in Services before where the pews are all jammed together and the floor is concrete and cold and sometimes people as you get older it becomes difficult to kneel and God doesn't want us to
kneel down where we're in so much pain that we can't think about prayer but with all that in mind there's a lot of young healthy people that just never take time to bow their name before God and our posture does say something about our reverence and you just look at the different religions of the world Muslims have no problem bowing down five times a day and praying to Allah Buddhists and Hindus and many other religions they bow before their God is not the god of the Christian even more Worthy is he not more powerful is
he not more holy and so the Bible tells us if my people will humble thems elves and pray and seek my face and this is 2 Chronicles 7:14 one of the ways we humble ourselves is we bow before the Lord so friends my appeal is not that you always need to kneel When you pray Peter prayed when he was swimming he was drowning he said Lord save me and Stephen was about to be stoned he prayed Jesus prayed from the cross while being crucified and Nehemiah prayed while he was serving the King of Persia a
cup of water and so you can pray all the time the Bible says pray without ceasing but in our formal devotions let's not forget to Humble ourselves before our God and our creator
