By Brian Walters, Director of Adult Ministries @ MBC Loudoun

After I prayed with my wife the other day, we began to wonder why so many people tend to pray with their hands folded, eyes closed, and heads bowed down. Does God command us to have a certain posture when we pray? So I went to God’s Word to see if it gave any instruction (2 Tim. 3:16) on how our posture should be when we pray.

I discovered that people prayed to God with many different postures in the Bible, all of which were acceptable. For instance, Jesus put his face to the ground (Matt. 26:39) in Gethsemane, he lifted his eyes to heaven (John 17:1), King Solomon prayed on his knees with his hands held high (1 Kings 8:54), Daniel prayed on his knees (Daniel 6:10), people prayed standing up (Psalm 106:30; Neh. 9:2; Mark 11:25), others threw themselves to the ground (Ezra 10:1), and King David prayed seated (2 Sam. 7:18).  So if anyone ever tells you God won’t hear you pray because you are not in the right posture, know what the person is saying is unbiblical.

The take-away here is any physical posture for prayer is acceptable, the Lord does not require us to position our bodies in a certain way in order to be heard by him. So whether, you are driving your car, on the treadmill at the gym, lying in bed or even in the shower; all these postures are acceptable, but what is ultimately and truly important in prayer is not our physical posture, but the posture of our hearts. Sometimes it is easier for us to bow our knees then it is our hearts to God. Also, our outward posture is not always symbolic of our inward spiritual attitude as we can see from the parable of the Pharisee and Tax Collector (Luke 18:9-14).

So the next time you are in prayer and your heart is troubled or it is not in the right place, be honest with God and tell Him how you are feeling – remember, it’s no secret to Him. :) Ask Him to break your heart for what breaks His.  Ask Him to put your heart in the right place as you come before Him.  Whatever you do, just keep praying.  The Bible says we should “pray without ceasing,” so that means anytime and anywhere, the important thing is not where we pray but that we do pray!