Start your day with quick daily devotions: the posture of prayer

Scripture reading - Psalm 51

Have mercy on me, O God, according to your unfailing love. . . . A broken and contrite heart that you, God, will not despise. - Psalm 51: 1, 17

What is your posture for praying? Close your eyes? Do you cross your hands? Do you get on your knees? You get up?

In fact, there are many appropriate positions for prayer, and none are necessarily right or wrong. It is the posture of our heart that really matters in prayer.

The Bible teaches that God rejects the proud and arrogant. But God listens to the prayers of believers who approach him with a humble and contrite heart.

Approaching God with a humble and repentant heart, however, does not imply humble yourself. Coming before God with meekness, we confess that we have sinned and fall short of his glory. Our humility is a call for forgiveness. It is a recognition of our absolute need and total dependence. Ultimately, it is a plea that we need Jesus.

Through Jesus' death on the cross, we receive God's grace. So, with humility and a contrite spirit, we can courageously enter God's very presence with our prayers. God does not despise our humble repentance.

So, whether you pray standing, kneeling, sitting, with folded hands, or however you happen to get close to God, do it with a humble and contrite heart.

Prayer

Father, through your Son, Jesus, we humbly come before you, trusting that you will listen and answer our prayers. Amen.