psalm 95

Psalm 95:
Oh come, let us sing to the Lord! Let us shout joyfully to the Rock of our salvation.
2 Let us come before His presence with thanksgiving; Let us shout joyfully to Him with psalms.
3 For the Lord is the great God, And the great King above all gods.
4 In His hand are the deep places of the earth; The heights of the hills are His also.
5 The sea is His, for He made it; And His hands formed the dry land. 
 6 Oh come, let us worship and bow down; Let us kneel before the Lord our Maker.
7 For He is our God, And we are the people of His pasture, And the sheep of His hand. Today, if you will hear His voice:
8 “Do not harden your hearts, as in the rebellion, As in the day of trial in the wilderness,
9 When your fathers tested Me; They tried Me, though they saw My work.
10 For forty years I was grieved with that generation, And said, ‘It is a people who go astray in their hearts, And they do not know My ways.’
11 So I swore in My wrath, ‘They shall not enter My rest.’”
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Excerpt from  from Diamonds in the Dust. Copyright © 1993 by Joni Eareckson Tada

I grew up in a little congregation where they read the Gospel, sang hymns from the heart, and kneeled in prayer.  Sunday worship was serious business and I learned as a child what it means to bend my knee before the Lord.

Obviously, God listens whether His people pray standing, sitting, or lying prostrate. So what’s my point about kneeling? I wish I could do it. Being paralyzed, it’s impossible for me to kneel for prayer.
Once at a convention, the speaker closed his message by asking everyone in the room to kneel on the floor for prayer. All five hundred people got on their knees. All except me. I cried, not because I felt awkward but because I was struck with the beauty of seeing so many people bow in worship. I breathed a prayer: “Lord Jesus, I can’t wait for the day when I will rise up on resurrected legs. The first thing I will then do is to drop on grateful, glorified knees.”

On the day I receive my new body, I’m sure my Lord will be delighted to watch me stretch glorified muscles and dance on tiptoe. But there’s something I plan to do that may please Him more. I will kneel. To not move will be my demonstration of heartfelt thanks for the grace He gave those many years when my legs and hands were paralyzed. It will be my sacrifice of praise.
Today, do what so many who are paralyzed, or too lame, or old can’t do. Read Psalm 95:6 and take its advice, and when you kneel in prayer, be grateful for knees that bend to the will of God.

I bow before You, Lord, in submission to Your will. And when I rise from my knees, may I serve You wholeheartedly.​