For this reason I kneel before the Father. (Ephesians 3:14)
What is significant about bowing your knees? It does not mean that you are any more or less spiritual than somebody else if you are standing and they are kneeling. There are several places in Scripture where they stood with their hands raised to heaven, just as humble in their hearts as anyone is who kneels or bows down before the Father. But when we down, it signifies the attitude of our heart as we approach the Father. Bowing our knees before the Father signifies, first of all, a submission to a higher authority. Paul called himself a prisoner, a bondservant of Jesus Christ. It shows that the one who bows down and prays is in the presence of the ultimate authority. Psalm 95:1-6 shows us the attitude of someone who comes before the Father and realizes who He is. V. 3-5 says, “For the Lord is the great God, the great King above all gods. In His hand are the depths of the earth, and the mountain peaks belong to Him. The sea is His, for He made it, and His hands formed the dry land.” Since God is all of these things and since He is absolutely sovereign and absolute authority, v. 6 concludes, "Come, let us bow down in worship, let us kneel before the Lord our Maker." It is an attitude of the heart. When we bow our knee before God, we are bowing in submission to the highest authority. We are saying, "God, whatever You want is what I want." That is what bowing the knee means: our heart is overwhelmed with Who it is we are talking to. Secondly, it signifies an intense passion, an intense emotion in prayer. When-ever Paul prays, he is very specific, and he is very passionately, very emotionally involved in his prayers. When a person falls down on their knees, it is always a picture of that intensity, of that passion and of that emotion (see Ezra 9:5-6, Daniel 6:6-10, Acts 20:36-38). So the whole posture of prayer is not in what your body is doing. It is in what your heart is doing before God. You may not be kneeling. You may be in a crowded subway, on a plane, in your office cubicle, or on your bed. Wherever you are, if your attitude is filled with awe and submission and you are intensely concerned with what God has burdened your heart, that is bowing your knees before the Father. For Paul, this is not some trite prayer he prays while in prison. This is something that is deeply, intensely burned into his heart. He wants the believers in Ephesus to be able to live it out in front of the people. There is passion and submission. There is awe, and emotion. Paul’s prayer posture then is very clear. It is an attitude of his heart. Finally, notice the person to whom Paul was praying. He says, "I kneel before the Father." In Eph. 3:15, Paul says that he prays to the Father, “from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name.” There is a sense that God is Father of all creation. Nothing was created except that He created it. God is not only the Creator, He is also our Father. This is family talk. Paul is interested in the family. Paul knows God’s will for the family of believer at Ephesus, the faithful saints, is not only to know their riches in Christ, but for them to live in those riches and to experience the riches of their salvation every single day. Comments are closed.
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