Postures in Prayer

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Richiee

Richiee

Member
May 25, 2012
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Longtime back, in a prayer meeting at a house, a sick lady was forced to kneel down and pray, if she wanted to receive her healing. I felt sad at her incapability to kneel down because of her sickness, But she was forced to.
And at few more instances, I found that people were taught to pray only by kneeling down.
These made me to search the scriptures to find, whether we can pray without compulsorily kneeling down at times when we are unable.

Postures in prayer
STANDING - Nehemiah 9:5 ....“Stand up and bless the Lord your God Forever and ever!.....
KNEELING - Acts 21:5 When we had come to the end of those days, we departed and went on our way; and they all accompanied us, with wives and children, till we were out of the city. And we knelt down on the shore and prayed</SPAN>
SITTING - 1Chronicles 17:16 Then King David went in and sat before the Lord; and he said: “Who am I, O Lord God? And what is my house, that You have brought me this far?</SPAN>

HANDS UPLIFTED - 1Timothy 2:8I Desire therefore that the men pray everywhere, lifting up holy hands, without wrath and doubting;


If you have something to add or share on this please do.
GBU:)
 
Personally I think the position of a persons body is not important, what matters most is the position of their heart.
Heartfelt sincere prayer is of far more value than man made rules and regulations.

Also the Bible mentions pray without ceasing - I did use to wonder how this was possible to achieve, but I have come to realise that it is possible to
have a mind set of prayer, which automatically seeks out God during the day no matter what you are doing. You could be at work, on the bus, driving the car, in church, walking the dog etc etc.

Prayer is about communication with God and you don't need to be on your knees to communicate with your best friend :-)
 
The kneeling position with hands clasped comes, as I understand it, from a posture adopted before a Lord, King, etc. in the feudal period of Europe. The standard but not only position before this era, if I'm correct, was standing with hands outstretched. You can find this position on coins and statues, I forget their Latin names, which show some saint with the hands outstretched, indicating prayer for the person who carries it.

In this link, in the section on the commendation ceremony, you can read an explanation and see an example of the earlier standard position.
 
My husband gets out of bed when I get up each morning. I typically rise hours before he does, but he gets out of bed and prays lying down, on his face before the Lord. He prays for me. &#9829;
Will the Lord not hear him or answer his prayers because he isn't in the right posture? Will He not answer the quadriplegic? Or the one who has lost arms or legs? Shall these dear people have to get help from others before the Lord will grant their petitions?

The Lord requires that we walk humbly with Him. I agree that this is a heart matter. If we pray throughout the day, I believe the Lord hears and answers prayers in His will, whatever way we happen to be standing (or not). I rather think praying according to His will is most important. :)

Thank you, Richee, for beginning this thread. :)
~ellie
 
The majority of my prayers are said either lying down in bed or walking outdoors :)
Though I feel more focused when kneeling, I see nothing suggestion this is something one has to do.

Agree very much with what Miri said: We can pray without ceasing by seeking the Lord. I suspect he likes our random chit chat, it shows we want to share our lives with Him :)
 
Good posting on prayer. :)
I have alot of difficulty neeling, and doing so can cause severe muscle and tendon reactions.
So for me prayer is ussually when resting , the thing is, when resting, all my thoughts are focused on God, simply because there is no distraction of trying to maintain a pose.
But prayer should be always and in all we do , for this is the heart that God Our Father desires.

God bless
pickles
 
God created man with freedom of will or choice, and God will never force any man to serve Him through compulsion. The saved will be those who voluntarily choose for themselves to submit their lives into obedience to the teachings of Christ. I think that kind of fits with your thread about forced rituals to obtain something from God. ie. being forced to kneel to pray in order to receive blessings.

Great thread Richiee. You have some inspiring messages. Thank you.
 
I think God only sees the humilty of our hearts...
not the position of our bodies.

Although I have fallen to the ground...
and cried out daddy!
 
I came by this quote :)

[FONT=georgia, bookman old style, palatino linotype, book antiqua, palatino, trebuchet ms, helvetica, garamond, sans-serif, arial, verdana, avante garde, century gothic, comic sans ms, times, times new roman, serif]Certain thoughts are prayers. There are moments when, whatever be the attitude of the body, the soul is on its knees. ~Victor Hugo
[/FONT]
 
I don't think God cares what position you are in while praying, he's just glad to hear your prayers,making a sick or elderly person do something that is very painful to them is uncalled for, God understands that people are in pain and hurting, all he cares about is whats in the heart. We changed churches years ago due to this very thing, we used to belong to a small baptist church and the Choir director was very old and had many serious health problems, the pastor had the nerve to chastise him for not standing during a song, the director has now passed on ,bless his soul, he was a very faithful man of God, I had to leave that church, if the pastor was acting that way about someone who was in terrible health, it was hard to believe what he was preaching, I understand at a later date he was run out of there by the church members, but the church lost much of it's membership and really hasn't recovered yet. I notice at many church services today that instead of asking everyone to stand,they ask those that are able.
 
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I often don't think about the posture and pray lying on bed or in whatever position I'm comfortable. But at times I clearly feel the urging of the Holy Spirit to kneel down, then I do it. This post has made me realize how thoughtless I'm about this thing. I will maintain the right posture during prayer, hereon.
 
pray in the postion the Blessed Holy Spirit Leads you too Pray,amen.........
 
Preethi4Jesus said:
I often don't think about the posture and pray lying on bed or in whatever position I'm comfortable. But at times I clearly feel the urging of the Holy Spirit to kneel down, then I do it. This post has made me realize how thoughtless I'm about this thing. I will maintain the right posture during prayer, hereon.
Click to expand...
some people can't do this they have to pray the best way they can
 
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