Doves On Distant Oaks

Humility. It's a word that's tossed around a great deal and it's definition is reasonably well known. Ask anyone and they have a good idea what it means to be humble. Yet the ability to humble oneself is not that well practiced. That's because the world is constantly telling us—through media, television, movies, and so on—to build ourselves up. To be all we can be. To be somebody. It's hard to be humble when you're working so hard to be enrich your human spirit.

It's especially hard for men. Young men learn, often by watching their fathers, to to be the rock in a family, the one that has all the answers. That can lead to prideful behavior which results in a declining spiritual life. Pride is what keeps us from fearing God, from offering Him our deepest reverence.

Take kneeling for example. As a male, I often felt less than masculine dropping to my knees. I suppose its the subjugation of self, that act of surrendering. I lived a good many years believing that there was a verse in the Bible that says, “God helps those that helps himself.” I found out years later how wrong I was. If anything, the Bible teaches us that "God helps those who cannot help themselves."

Many kneel when they receive salvation, but when I received Christ as my savior, I simply lifted my hand, prayed the sinners prayer, and received salvation. Of course, I was young, desiring only to avoid going to Hell, so I didn't fully grasp the concept of complete surrender. I wonder how many believer's experience is the same?

I do, however, remember the first time I did fall to my knees. It was years later when I was at the bottom of a pitiless well. That's really what brings us to our knees, that point of desperation, when we see our abject failure before a prefect God. When we realize that surrender is the only way out. We kneel to acknowledge our pitiful state before a mighty and powerful God.

These days I spend a great more time on my knees. Our church always ends worship service with an alter call, of which both my wife and I make use of regularly. There is no biblical justification for an alter call, so it's not a necessary part of a worship service. However, there is justification for a public declaration of faith and walking to the alter to kneel before God is one way of doing so. We may become nervous, worried, and anxious; even among other followers of Christ. But if we can do it there, then its easier do so with a co-worker, an unsaved family member, or that person we met at the gas pump.

Worship is our way of communicating with God, and kneeling is the soft gentle whisper of our worship that draws His attention most fervently, because of what he sees deeply in our hearts. When you draw near to God, do you drop to your knees, or does that seem to be an unnatural act? Remember, sometimes the easiest way to come to a standing position is from bended knee.




Keywords: Humility, Salvation, Surrender, Worship


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