Not even figuratively!

Matthew  26:36-39

"36 Then cometh Jesus with them unto a place called Gethsemane, and saith unto the disciples, Sit ye here, while I go and pray yonder.

37 And He took with Him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, and began to be sorrowful and very heavy.

38 Then saith He unto them, My soul is exceeding sorrowful, even unto death: tarry ye here, and watch with Me.

39 And He went a little farther, and fell on His face, and prayed, saying, O My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from Me: nevertheless not as I will, but as Thou wilt."

We are studying kneeling before GOD. We are not used to getting on our knees. It's not something we normally do. In the old days people DID have to kneel and bow at the feet of others. 

Sometimes it's easier to get down than to get up. That alone can make us reluctant to bow down. We like to think of our RELATIONSHIP to GOD. We want to think that our attitude is correct, even if our posture is not. But, in our heart of hearts we know the value of kneeling  before God. Making less of yourself. Empty yourself of you and focus on God. Fill yourself with the grace of Jesus. Less of us more of Him.

It's written throughout Holy Scriptures. The Hebrew word for “worship” literally means “to bow down.” Something that would have been done from the kneeling position. Making kneeling before God a very important practice coming to us from the pages of our Holy Bible! We just read in the letter to the Philippians that "EVERY KNEE SHOULD BOW!" to JESUS.

Even in today's verses, when Jesus is praying to GOD the Father, He "fell on His face, and prayed." This is our Lord and Savior praying to GOD, not just on His knees in submission BUT stretched out with face on the ground! This is the next level beyond kneeling!! This is what Jesus did and in Paul's letter he is instructing his reads to do as Jesus did. Why would we think that we shouldn't kneel, at the very least???

If you listened to the sermon in yesterday's link you heard a very good case for having a mental attitude of kneeling in our prayers and worship. Each of us needs to ask ourselves if our attitude is that of someone kneeling before our sovereign LORD? OR, is our posture of not kneeling and outward sign of our inward attitude that refuses to kneel??? The link below is to a discussion with Dr. Anthony Esolen (the greatest thinker of our time.) If you will listen to these insights; you just might realize that people today are NOT kneeling at all. Not even figuratively. 

https://issuesetc.org/2021/11/17/3242-the-war-on-reality-dr-anthony-esolen-11-17-21/