Condition, Not Position

As I lay in my yard I hoped silently that my neighbors (who just so happened to be my aunt and uncle) didn’t peer out of their window and see me. If they did they would certainly be concerned and call my mom, then I would have some serious explaining to do. But surely I wasn’t the only 17 year old to sneak out at night, was I?

Of course not. Although I may have been the only 17-year-old to sneak out for the reason that I had snuck out.  I wasn’t sneaking out to go to a party or to meet up with friends or even my girlfriend. Nope, I was praying.

Let me paint the scene for you from an onlooker’s point of view.  It’s late-night/ early morning in Aragon GA in 2002. A white male emerges slowly and quietly from his front door. He’s young, 16-18 years old. He turns off the motion sensor porch light before closing the door as quietly as possible so as not to alert his mother (who, let’s face it, is never going to buy that he’s going out for a midnight sweet hour of prayer). He then tiptoes down the porch steps and takes a hard right to the left side of the home, the side farthest away from said relatives. He crouches, kneels, and proceeds downward until he finally rests in a fully prostrate position in the grass. Then…nothing. He just lays there.

What brought me to pray in the middle of my yard? Well, there was something that I wanted badly, and I had been praying for it for a while, but God didn’t seem to be answering me. So, in my spiritual immaturity, I thought the next step was to do something extreme to get God’s attention. Surely if I could prove to him that I was willing to humble myself before Him, even to the point of lying face down on the hard ground in the dark, He would answer me favorably. Wouldn’t He? After all, those in the Bible that were truly repentant got down in sackcloth and ashes.

Oh boy, there was a whole lot wrong with my approach to God then. It took me a long time to figure out that God wasn’t concerned with the location or position of my body, but the condition of my heart. Sure, most of the time when I pray I kneel or at least bow my head, the difference is I now realize that my prayer is not heard any more because I kneel, or any less because I don’t.

There are many instances of people bowing to their knees or falling to their face in prayer in the Bible, but there are also instances of people standing in prayer. Solomon stood and spread his hands towards heaven when he prayed at the dedication of the temple (1 Kings 8:22). In the story of the pharisee and the publican praying in the temple, it is said that the publican was justified, even though he stood during his prayer (he did however bow his head). In Mark 11 when Jesus is teaching on the importance of forgiving others and prayer he says, “And when ye STAND praying…” (Mk. 11:25, emphasis mine).

What’s the point here? I think it can be summed up like this; kneeling is great. Lying on your face in the middle of the yard at midnight is fine. But if our outward displays of submission and humility are not flowing from an inner submission and humility of the heart, they are useless. We’d be just as well off to pray using vain repetitions (Mt. 6:7). On the other hand, if our hearts are right, an outward expression of kneeling is just that, an outward expression.

Now to finish my story. I prayed like this more than once, and God did eventually answer my prayer. He said no. Maybe next time I’ll try jumping up and down on the altar and cutting myself (1 Kings 18).

God bless!

I look forward to your comments, questions, and corrections below.