Imagine my disappointment as I stood there looking at my blackberry patch and saw very few berries. As I looked down on my bushes there were just a few scattered berries here and there. I moaned as the truth settled in that the blackberry picking season was obviously ending for the year. In waiting the past few days I had missed my opportunity to get the most out of the season. I looked and saw just a few scattered berries, some of which had been partially eaten by the birds.
Refusing to give up all hope, I decided to pick the few berries that remained. "Perhaps," I thought, "I'll at least get a few to add to my cereal tomorrow morning." I spent several minutes going over the bushes carefully picking every remaining berry that I could.
Then I accidentally dropped a few berries. It was just unthinkable to leave them on the ground since it was the end of the season. I knelt down and carefully sorted through the grass and weeds, and picked up the two or three berries I had dropped and placed them in my bucket.
As I began to stand back up, I looked up and to my surprise I discovered that my bushes were covered in berries. The berries had been concealed from sight by the numerous branches and leaves of blackberry bushes. That same cover had protected these berries from the beaks of the birds. The berries had been there all along, but I had been unable to see them by looking from above. It was only from looking from below, while on my knees that I could see these berries.
The blessings of these berries had been there all along, but I had been unable to see them until I changed my perspective, until I stopped looking from above and started looking from below -- until I began looking up from my knees.
That isn't true just in the blackberry patch, it is true of life as well! We discover that many times there are blessings all around us, but they are hidden from plain sight. What we need is a change in perspective. But what must we do to change our perspective? We must get on our knees.
When we think of that posture what comes to mind? In the Bible the posture of being on your knees was generally used in three circumstances. I am convinced that in order to change our perspective we must get on our knees in all three of these ways.
FIRST, We have to get on our knees in prayer.
There are many places in the scriptures that show that when people bent their knees in the scriptures what they were doing was praying. One place where can see this clearly was when Paul met with the leaders of the Ephesian church at Miletus while on his way to Jerusalem. Notice what they did at the end of that meeting.
When he (Paul) had said this, he knelt down with all of them and prayed. Acts 20.36 NIV, parentheses added.
Someone has said that "Prayer changes things...and the first thing it changes is you!" Prayer changes us in that it reminds us that we are not to seek our own will, but God's will. Remember how Jesus taught us to pray.
Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Matt. 6.9-10 NIV
That is a monumental change in perspective. Most of us usually want our way, but in getting our way we may miss out on the blessings that God has in store for us.
I am convinced that God is good, and because he is good he wants what is best for us. Not what is good for us, but what is best for us. Because I am convinced that God's will is always the best possible alternative. If that is true why would we insist on getting our own way? When we pray for God's will to be done, we are praying for God to do what is best. When we pray for God's will to be done, it changes our perspective from the self-centeredness that too frequently and too easily plagues us. In order for our perspective to change we must get on our knees in prayer.
SECOND, We have to get on our knees in worship.
Another reason people in the Scriptures would get down on their knees was to worship. One place where we can see that this was the case was when the Temple was restored and rededicated under King Hezekiah. Notice what occured on that day.
When the offerings were finished, the king and everyone present with him knelt down and worshiped. King Hezekiah and his officials ordered the Levites to praise the LORD with the words of David and of Asaph the seer. So they sang praises with gladness and bowed their heads and worshiped. 2 Chron. 29.29-30, NIV
Just like prayer, worship has the ability to change our perspective. Nancy Cheatham gave a wonderful illustration of how this is true. She wrote...
My sister bought a new car that was loaded with high-tech options. The first time she drove the car in the rain, she turned a knob she thought would start the windshield wipers. Instead a message flashed across the dash: "Drive car in 360 degrees." She had no idea what that meant, and so when she got home she read the car manual.
She learned that while trying to turn on the windshield wipers she had inadvertently turned off the internal compass, and the car had lost its sense of direction. To correct the problem, the car had to be driven in a full circle, pointed north, and then the compass had to be reset.
Each time we gather to worship, we are resetting our internal compass. We establish "true north" in our soul, remembering who God is and what his truth proclaims.
[SOURCE: Nancy Cheatham, Olathe, KS; quoted in More Perfect Illustrations for Preaching and Teaching.]
You see the tendency is for us to have the perspective that life is all about us - that we are the center of the universe. But that is not really the case. The point of life really is about bringing glory to God. The Westminister Catechism, a document crucial to the Protestant Reformation in England, begins with this question and answer.
What is the chief and highest end of man?
Man's chief and highest end is, to glorify God, and fully to enjoy him forever.
[SOURCE: Westminister Catechism]
That is exactly the change in perspective that kneeling in worship brings to life. Worship reveals that the blessings of the Christian life come not from focusing on ourselves, but from focusing on God. By changing our focus to him, we discover the blessings that come from fully enjoying God. To change our perspective in life, we must kneel in prayer, but we must also kneel in worship.
THIRD, We have to get on our knees in service.
The final reason people in the Bible would bow their knees was to serve. The most famous example of this, although by no means the only example, is that of our Lord Jesus Christ. Remember the scene on Maundy Thursday before his crucifixion.
...he (Jesus) got up from the meal, took off his outer clothing, and wrapped a towel around his waist. After that, he poured water into a basin and began to wash his disciples' feet, drying them with the towel that was wrapped around him. John 13.4-5 NIV, parentheses added.
Picture that! Our Lord kneeling before his disciples in order to wash their feet, among other reasons, to teach them that the Christian life is a life of service. Typically we like to be served, but what happens if we make ourselves the servants? Would that have the capability to change our perspective on life? Absolutely, it does!
I once had an older minister share with me about his experience with a state convention that he had been a part of. The convention had been considering a few years a rather large project. Each group felt passionately and wanted their own way, and refused to fully hear the position of the other side. As a result their annual convention meetings had degenerated into arguments and fighting as each group felt that the other was unreasonable. The annual meeting finally came in which the convention would have to make a final decision on the issue, and the delegates had arrived fighting mad. The meeting seemed certain to produce a major knock-out, drag-out fight, and some delegates believed that the potential was great that the meeting could result in a split of the denomination. But according to the older minister who related this story to me, the delegates were surprised to discover that their leaders had planned to start the meeting with a foot-washing service. The older minister told me that this service vastly transformed the spirit of the meeting. By kneeling before one another in service the delegates perspective had changed.
Isn't that exactly what the scriptures tells us should happen?
What causes fights and quarrels among you? Don't they come from your desires that battle within you? You want something but don't get it. You kill and covet, but you cannot have what you want. You quarrel and fight. You do not have, because you do not ask God. James 4.1-2, NIV.
If you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from his love, if any fellowship with the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion, then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and purpose. Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves. Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others. Phil 2.1-4, NIV.
If we are going to change our perspective so we can discover hidden blessings, we must kneel in prayer, we must kneel in worship, and we must kneel in service. Doing these three is certain to let us see with different eyes.
