Personal Posture

200 words: Not How He Knelt, But Whom He Knew.

Was Jesus sitting, standing, kneeling or even prostrating himself as he prayed?

Luke 22:41 tells us that Jesus knelt down to pray on the Mount of Olives, calling on God his Father to help him in his passion.

Whether he sat, stood, knelt or was prostrate, it was his personal, not physical, posture that aroused within the disciple a desire to pray:

Once Jesus was in a certain place praying, and when he had finished one of his disciples said, ‘Lord, teach us to pray, just as John taught his disciples’ (Luke 11).

What was it like to witness Jesus praying?

Consistent with the whole of his life, Jesus’ prayer was not self-centred, but focused on Someone other than himself:

Father, may your name be held holy, your kingdom come.

Notice that it is a prayer full of hope, since the one who asks, receives. The one who seeks, finds. The one who knocks, always has the door opened to him.

But wait, there is more:

If you then, who are evil, know how to give your children what is good, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!

Amen.