The Use of Prayer: Part 5 - Ever Reforming

98. What is prayer? A. Prayer is an offering up of our desires unto God, for things agreeable to his will, in the name of Christ, with confession of our sins, and thankful acknowledgement of his mercies.

In this lesson on the use of prayer, we will focus on the circumstances of prayer, specifically, how we should incorporate our bodies in prayer and when we are to pray.

The Body in Prayer

Like other aspects of worship, it is good to consider how we may engage our bodies in prayer, though it may be of secondary importance compared to the preparation of our hearts and minds. Under this heading, we will broadly consider five body positions: kneeling, bowing, falling down, standing, and sitting.

There is a long tradition of kneeling during prayer, dating back millennia, and adopted by both Old and New Testament saints as a position of reverence and humility (Ps. 95:6; 1 Ki. 8:54; 2 Chr. 6:13; Dan 6:10; Acts 7:60; 20:36; 21:5; Eph. 3:14). It has been universally practiced by Christians since ancient times both in public and private prayers.¹ For instance, Eusebius, an early church historian (c. 260-265 AD), recorded that Roman soldiers who were converted to Christianity were found “kneeling on the ground according to the custom usually observed by us in prayer.”² As another example, at the Synod of Dort (1618-1619), the delegates were said to constantly kneel down to pray.³ Kneeling reminds us of our position before God.

“Kneeling does certainly express humility and subjection. When we bend our body, we reduce it as far as possible to a smaller form, and by this attitude make an acknowledgment of our meanness.”⁴

Closely related to kneeling is bowing. This, too, has a long tradition. Scriptural support is deduced from verses like Psalm 99:5, which instructs us to “Exalt the Lord our God, and fall [bow] down before his footstool: for he is holy” (1599 Geneva Bible), and Isaiah 66:1, where God says that “earth is my footstool.” This has been interpreted to mean that bowing down towards God’s footstool, is to bow down in body towards the earth.⁵ This may have also been the posture that Elijah adopted when he petitioned God to send rain (1 Ki. 18:42; cf. Ja. 5:16-18). Besides the earth itself, it has also been pointed out that the ark of the covenant and the temple were referred to as God’s “footstool” (1 Chr. 28:2; Eze. 43:7)—both of these representing Christ (cf. Col. 2:9). As such, by physically bowing our bodies to the ground, we may be additionally signifying that we are bowing our hearts to Christ, in whom God dwells, acknowledging that it is only through Christ that we have access to God.

Falling down prostrate is another way to pray (cf. 1 Cor. 14:25). Like kneeling or bowing, this particular posture portrays humility, but additionally expresses great sorrow. Jesus Christ, himself, adopted this posture when he “fell on his face” as he prayed in anguish (Mt. 26:39; cf. Mk. 14:35). Accordingly, praying prostrate has received wide acceptance in church history. Theodoret, an ancient theologian (c. 393-458 AD) recommended it, saying, “Unquestionably, he does not believe his sin to be great who does not seek the cure of his soul by falling prostrate, or bowing down to the ground. Let no one, therefore, unless infirmity forbids, be reluctant to fall down flat upon the earth to express humility.”

Prayer can also be offered while standing (1 Sam. 1:26). It is in this sense that the Jews have traditionally interpreted passages like Genesis 18:22 and 19:27, speaking of Abraham, as well as 1 Kings 17:1, describing Elijah. The New Testament also seems to indicate that praying while standing was commonplace among the Jews (Mk. 11:25; Lk. 18:13; cf. Mt. 6:5). The practice was adopted by the Christian church early on, and reflected in ancient liturgies.⁶ As it is used in the Bible, this posture frequently indicates reverence, obedience, and readiness towards a superior (e.g., Joseph standing before Pharoah, Gen. 41:46; Daniel and his companions before Nebuchadnezzar, Dan. 1:5; the angels standing before God, Dan. 7:10 and Zech. 3:7).⁷

Finally, sitting can be used for prayer.⁸ There are numerous examples of people in the Bible who sat down to pray, including David (2 Sam. 7:18), Elijah (1 Ki. 19:4), Nehemiah (Neh. 1:4), and the multitude instructed by Jesus (Mt. 14:19). Even so, there are some historical commentators who have expressed concern about it. The Jews, for instance, think that it is inconsistent with the reverence that we owe to God.⁹ Similarly, the church father, Tertullian (c. 155-220 AD), said, “To sit down within the view, or in the immediate presence of a person whom you regard with the highest honour and reverence, would be a mark of disrespect: how much more in the sight of the living God?”¹⁰

Beyond the five body positions above, we can additionally consider the use of other parts of our body—namely the significance of head coverings, hand gestures, and foot coverings—as these relate to how the human body should be engaged in prayer. We will address these briefly:

Head coverings were used in the early church in worship.¹¹ The Apostle Paul gave instructions about corporate worship to the church at Corinth, indicating that men were not to wear head coverings, but women were (1 Cor. 11:2-16)—albeit the specific application of these instructions have been subject to controversy. There have been some who insist that these instructions are universally binding while others who believe that they are merely cultural. Taking the latter position, Witsius stated that “it must not be supposed that the same rule, which [Paul] had given to the Corinthians from a regard to their customs, would have been invariably given to Jews dwelling in their own country” but rather “what, at one place and time, is sufficiently becoming, would be, another place and time, highly unbecoming.”¹² For this reason, Witsius stated that one may appeal to Christian liberty with regards to the use of head coverings.¹³

Concerning our hands, these may be lifted (1 Tim. 2:8; Ps. 63:4; Lam. 3:41) and/or spread (1 Ki. 8:22; Job 11:13-14; Is. 1:15) during prayer.¹⁴ The action of lifting and spreading our hands denotes sincerity (i.e., by laying open what was hidden), hope (i.e., like a child stretching out their hands to their parents), and engagement (i.e., a delight to seize upon God).¹⁵ The church father, Chrysostom (c. 347-407 AD), elaborated further, “What means the stretching out of the hands in prayer? The hands contribute to many wicked actions, such as acts of violence, murder, robbery, avarice [greed], and unlawful gain. For this very reason we are commanded to lift them that the use we make of them in prayer may serve to banish malice and prevent crime. If you feel yourself disposed to injure the person or property of another, remember that those hands were employed, as your advocates and intercessors with God, in presenting that spiritual sacrifice.”¹⁶

A point can also be made about uncovering our feet in prayer. Before approaching God, both Moses and Joshua were instructed to take off their sandals (Ex. 3:5; Josh. 5:15). It was also a requirement under Jewish tradition that the priests had their feet uncovered during sacred ceremonies.¹⁷ The removing of shoes has been taken to represent subjection and servitude (e.g., Isa. 20:2), grief and mourning (e.g., Eze. 24:17), and personal purity(e.g., Eccl. 5:1).

Having considered many possible body positions, gestures, and coverings during prayer, it is important for us to ask, practically speaking, what is the most proper use of our bodies during prayer and is there Christian liberty in the matter? The answer is nuanced.

First, spontaneous prayers can be offered to God at any time or place (e.g., when our souls call out to God, as it were, instinctively). These do not require any formal preparation.¹⁸ For instance, Nehemiah, while serving as cup-bearer to Artaxerxes, “prayed to the God of heaven” as the king was speaking to him (Neh. 2:1-4). Second, and similarly, secret prayers are those often offered in the mind alone, and not seen by men nor perceived by bodily posture, but can still be pleasing to God (cf. Mt. 6:5-6). Describing this, Chrysostom said, “Although you do not bend the knee, or strike the breast, or spread out the hands towards heaven, if you only maintain ardent devotion, you will discharge fully the duty of prayer.”¹⁹ Third, physical limitations can make it impossible for some people to assume specific body postures. This may be the case for the sick or disabled. For example, King Hezekiah, when mortally ill, turned his face towards the wall and prayed earnestly to God while lying in bed (Is. 38:1-2), and his prayer was heard (vv. 4-5). Related to this, prayers offered at night in bed can still be acceptable to God (cf. Ps. 6:6).

However, under ordinary circumstances, it is proper for stated prayers (whether private or public) to be joined with a respectful posture that is in keeping with humility, reverence, and hope towards God. Even admitting the points above, we still need to acknowledge that generally body position matters for the following reasons:

“For, (1) our body ought to bear testimony in prayer that it is God’s property. (2) We have the example… not only of the saints of both the Old and New Testaments, but of the Prince of all saints, our Lord Jesus Christ. (3) We are commanded to do so. The injunctions which relate to bowing, kneeling, and spreading the hands, do unquestionably refer mainly to the mind, but they proceed on the supposition of that bodily gesture, to which God requires a corresponding disposition. (4) On many accounts it is expedient. In respect of God, to whom we thus express adoration and obedience. In respect of others who are present, and who may be excited by our conduct to perform similar acts of devotion. Lastly, in respect of ourselves; for when gestures possess any meaning, they have a language of their own which reminds us that we are addressing God.”²⁰

But we should not be superstitious about how our bodies are to be engaged in prayer, as if some positions are more likely to bring about the results we desire. Of far greater importance than our bodies, we need to make sure that our hearts and minds are right before God. The use of our bodies reinforces what should already be true in our hearts and minds. The great theologian, Augustine of Hippo (354-430 AD), explained:

“Persons engaged in prayer employ the members of their body in a matter suitable to suppliants, when they bend the knee, or spread the hands, or prostrate themselves on the ground, or perform any visible action. Their will, and the intention of their heart, though invisible to men, are known to God, who needs not these outward expressions for laying open before him the human mind… [Yet] through some sort of mutual influence, the inward activity is again increased by the outward visible actions, so that the affections of the heart, from which those actions originated, derives from them an increase of its own strength.”²¹

Cultural context matters. Normative practices can vary according to when and where we live. For example, “the ancient Hebrews prayed with their heads covered, and in so doing they acted properly; for among Eastern nations that was formerly, and still is, an outward expression of reverence. In the western and southern parts of Europe, [they] are in the habit of uncovering the head in token of respect, and therefore, [they] properly uncover the head in prayer.”²² Greater liberty should be given to prayers offered in private than those in public, social, or family gatherings where greater attention is necessary to external propriety and for the mutual edification of others.

To sum it up, it is important to avoid two extremes: careless profanity and anxious superstition in prayer. Our bodies should be used as aides, not hindrances, in our prayer lives.

Times of Prayer

Timing is another circumstance of prayer.²³ Does it matter when we pray? Germane to the question, we need to consider several common categories of prayer:²⁴

Public prayers, such as those held on annual prayer day services or weekly prayer meetings, must have set times and days that are known to all members of the congregation; otherwise, public assembly of believers would be impossible.

For private prayers that we offer up on our own, we are instructed to pray continually, that is, frequently (Col. 4:2; 1 Th. 5:17; Eph 6:18). There is a sense in which we should go to God and converse with Him in prayer in everything we do (e.g., at the beginning of the day, during our work, before meals, when traveling, before sleeping, etc.).

There are spontaneous prayers. These cannot be scheduled because they come spur of the moment. “Every Christian feels an immediate necessity for prayer [that] arises whenever he is assailed by temptations to sin, or finds himself sinfully affected by grief, or meets with a sudden calamity, or apprehends imminent danger, or has received a fresh instance of divine goodness, or meets with any occurrences of that sort, an enumeration of which would be endless.”²⁵ These prayers cannot be limited to a specific day or time.

Recognizing these categories (and the fact that it is not always possible to schedule prayer), it is still highly beneficial and to our advantage to have an ordinary routine in our prayer lives. First, it helps us to stay regular in prayer, amid the many distractions of life. Second, by setting aside a specific time for prayer and not allowing other things to displace it, we are making prayer a priority.²⁶

This comes with some caveats. First, we have to beware of superstition. We must not attribute any mystical importance to a specific hour (or day) for prayer.²⁷ “All hours of the day are alike to God.”²⁸ Second, there is no set time for prayer that should be enforced on all people indiscriminately. There is no specific commandment in Scripture that fixes the number of times we must pray in a day, or the hour that we should pray. For this, there is Christian liberty. “Every hour is not equally suitable to every person. Every person ought to select those hours which he finds to be most convenient for himself and his family.”²⁹

When a time for prayer has been set, we should take it seriously. “The stated hours of prayer ought never, on slight grounds, to be set aside. If a hindrance occurs, we should feel uneasy, should take the earliest opportunity of preventing the recurrence of such hindrances, and make up for the omission at the next season of prayer.”³⁰ Just as we aim to stay on schedule for our meals and bedtime (without easily postponing or omitting either), we should do the same with prayer. We are to be reminded that in prayer, we engage with God. We should not let other activities easily displace our appointment with Him.

By setting aside specific times for prayer, we are not restricting prayer to only those set times. Having scheduled prayer in not contrary to the work of the Holy Spirit’s; it is not intended to quench the Spirit of prayer (1 Th. 5:19; cf. Zech. 12:10; Eph. 6:18; Jude 20).³¹ Contrary to common belief, the work of the Holy Spirit is not limited to spontaneous activity.³² We can be reminded that all the elements of Christian worship are scheduled at predictable and regular times (e.g., public reading of Scriptures, preaching of the Word, observance of the Lord’s supper, etc.), and these are all blessed by the Spirit.

“It is a mistake to imagine that we ought not to pray except when we feel ourselves excited by the Holy Spirit to prayer. Our obligation to the duty does not depend on the influences of the Spirit, who, as the Lord of all, has his times of working in his own power, but depends exclusively on the Divine appointment, which is the rule of our actions. The influence of the Spirit in the exercises of religion must be looked for by faith.”³³

Footnotes

1
Witsius, Herman. Sacred Dissertations on the Lord’s Prayer. Reformation Heritage Books, 2010, p. 65.
2
Ibid. Cited from Eusebius’ Ecclesiastical History, book 5, chapter 5.
3
Ibid. “The Synod of Dort was held in order to settle a serious controversy in the Dutch churches initiated by the rise of Arminianism… The Synod held 154 formal sessions over a period of seven months (November 1618 to May 1619).” Beeke, Joel R. The Three Forms of Unity. Solid Ground Christian Books, 2012, pp. 117-118.
4
Witsius, Herman. Sacred Dissertations on the Lord’s Prayer. Reformation Heritage Books, 2010, p. 66.
5
Ibid, p. 70.
6
Ibid, pp. 74-75.
7
Ibid, p. 75.
8
It may be interesting to learn that it has been debated whether this is absolutely proper. Ibid, pp. 80-84.
9
Ibid, p. 83.
10
Ibid, p. 84.
11
Head coverings may have even been used for prayer in the Old Testament. Rabbis have interpreted head coverings to be a mark of modesty and some commentators have suggested that this is what is meant when Elijah hid his face under his garments when he approached God (1 Ki. 19:13). Ibid, p. 85.
12
Herman Witsius believed that the Apostle Paul’s instructions were cultural, and therefore not applicable to every context. Citing a senior German Reformed theologian, Johann Heinrich Alting (1583-1644), he argued, “Paul, when writing to the Corinthians who were Greeks, gives the preference to that custom. In doing so, he did not intend to lay down a universal law which should be everywhere observed… The Greeks were [accustomed] to perform their sacred rites with uncovered heads, in the worship of their idols. Those who perpetrated dishonourable actions were in the habit of concealing their heads by throwing over them old tattered clothes… Hence originated the proverbial expression, with naked head, applied to those who did anything openly and without shame… [Later] when the Greeks had abandoned idolatry, and gone over to the Christian faith, they appear to have departed from the practice of laying bare the head, either in imitation of the Jews, or from an aversion to the ancient custom [i.e., as an outward way of showing that they were no longer practising idolatry]. From this change in their outward services, some of their Greek neighbours [unbelievers] might be apt to [assume] that they treated the Deity with profane contempt… Paul, therefore, exhorts that, in praying or prophesying, they should attend to the proprieties of manner which were customary among the Gentles, and that, after becoming Christians, they should not hold out to strangers the appearance of being more ashamed of their new religion than they had been of their former idolatrous services.” Moreover, citing a senior French Huguenot theologian, Louis Cappel (1585-1658), “Both among the Greeks and Romans, all respectable persons appeared in public without any covering on their heads, and were not accustomed to cover the head except when they were compelled by mourning, [or] by disease… Paul, therefore, did not wish the Corinthians to attend religious services with the head covered, according to the custom of superstitious or idolatrous persons.” Ibid, pp. 87-90.
13
Ibid, p. 90.
14
In fact, the topic is more extensive than this, with some people even addressing the importance of hand washing before prayer and the kissing of hands during prayer! Ibid, pp. 90-96.
15
Ibid, pp. 93-94.
16
From Chrysostom’s commentary on Psalm 141. Ibid, p. 94.
17
Ibid, p. 96.
18
Ibid, p. 99.
19
Ibid, pp. 99-100.
20
Ibid, pp. 100-101.
21
Ibid, pp. 101-102.
22
Ibid, p. 102.
23
It was the ancient Hebrew practice to pray three times a day at prespecified hours: morning, noon, and evening (Dan. 6:10; Ps. 55:17). Early Christians similarly prayed at set times. Ibid, pp. 103, 109-111.
24
Ibid, pp. 116-117.
25
Ibid, p. 118.
26
Ibid, p. 119.
27
This was (and still is) the practice of the Roman Catholic Church. Ibid, pp. 112-116, 119.
28
Ibid, p. 120.
29
Ibid, p. 120.
30
Ibid, p. 120.
31
“At whatever time he is pleased to visit the soul, and excite it to prayer, it becomes our duty to throw aside every hindrance, and to do that to which we feel ourselves impelled by the Spirit of God.” Ibid, p. 118. “Whenever anyone feels himself impelled by the Holy Spirit to pray, he ought, without a moment’s delay, to throw aside every [encumbrance], and betake himself to prayer, without waiting for the arrival of the usual hour.” Ibid, p. 121.
32
This is a popular notion in today’s church, where it is often said that spontaneity in worship and prayer are “authentic” compared to the dreary routine of traditional liturgy.
33
Ibid, pp. 121-122.

Footnotes

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