Is there a particular verse in the bible that says if we should kneel always when praying.

I was brought up praying in no particular position. But my friend says that as christians, we should kneel when we pray like how muslims do when they pray. Is this founded in the bible? Im a roman catholic.

RickJ

Kneeling is among many signs of special reverence (including folding the hands and bowing the head).

In addition, they are physical things we can do to help ourselves stay focused;
In other words, both the mind and the body focused on prayer.

Jesushelper76

My personal belief, I am roman Catholic as well. We are taught to kneel when praying. Well I do not think God cares what position our bodies are in when we pray. It is about our Spirit our Heart. It is what is inside our souls when we pray that matters. We are told to meditate and pray daily. That means that we should learn to prayer and have constant connection to God at all times no matter what we are doing. So whether we are driving, cutting the grass, or working, or buying or anything we are doing. I do not think it would be wise to kneel on the job to pray especially working with machinery. I hope this answers your question and God bless!

Joe

RickJ

I see I did not really answer the question.

No, Neither the Bible nor Christianity in general teaches that we should always kneel.

In fact, we are taught the opposite: "To pray without ceasing"...that is, at any moment of our day.

fredg

Hi,
To the best of my knowledge, I know of no Bible passage that indicates kneeling while praying.
It's really up to the particular religious practices in which you participate. As already said, some bow their heads, some kneel, some pray at anytime, while driving, in bed, etc.
If you attend a particular place of Worship, then it would be up to their practices as to how you pray.

orange

Actually there is a passage somewhere in the Old Testament (forgive me, I could not locate it!), which says something to the effect of, "Bend the knee and bow the head at the name of Adonai". I know this passage exists because I'm Jewish and this passage is the reason why Jews traditionally bend their knees and bow their heads when praying and saying the word "Adonai". However, "bend the knee" is open to interpretation. Jews don't consider it to mean kneeling on the ground, but rather to just bend your knees slightly while remaining standing. Jews don't kneel at all, in fact, in the Jewish tradition, it's considered wrong. This dates back to Egypt, when kneeling on the ground was a sign of being a slave. Since the Jews were freed from Egypt, they are no longer slaves, and therefore don't kneel.

I seem to also recall another passage about bending the knee too... "every knee shall bend and every tongue confess" or something to that effect. I think heard this as part of a hymn in a Christian church. But I don't know if it's actually part of the bible or just part of the hymn.

I will try to find the actual verse(s) and then post them here later if I find them.

orange

Here's one from the New Testament, the second one I was referring to:

"At the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father" (Philippians 2:10-11).

And one from Isaiah, though not the one I was referring to initially:

"By Myself have I sworn, the word is gone forth from My mouth in righteousness, and shall not come back, that unto Me every knee shall bow..." (Isaiah 45:23).

Since I started looking, I found several others that talk about "bending the knee", but again that's not necessarily outright kneeling, and I didn't find any verses that say you MUST kneel when praying.

jduke44

Too many people focus on the positions of prayer rather than the position the focus of prayer to God.

This should definitely be our goal.

These are very good scriptures indicating that we should kneel, as rickj states, in reverence to God.

I think also if you feel like you haven't given God the time in awhile is a great time to kneel before Him and pray. Again, as JesusHelper states, there may not be opportunity or even dangerous to bend a knee to pray so it is ok.

I hope this answers your questions in addition to the other great answers.

Fr_Chuck

Kneeling is one of several ways the bible teaches us to pray.

We have an example of wearing sack cloth, putting ashes on our head and praying.

We have examples of prayer with our hands lited.

And in the New Testement we are told to pray always

In the main thing we are taught not to pray in public display to show to others we are praying, but to do it in reverence.

And we are told to go into our prayer closet ( private area for prayer)
many today are talking this also to the extreme and actually praying in the closet.

But yes on our knees is a main and important way of prayer, but not the only way or place or time we should be praying.

angelfire

Thanks for your pieces of enlightenmen you shared. I asked this because sometimes Im so busy, I cant bring myself to kneel in prayer before sleep. Though I pray a lot, I rarely do kneel in prayer except during sunday masses.

Here in the Philippines, there are so many Televised Masses that sometimes I get to think if this has somehow weakened the grip of the church to its people and has somehow lost the holiness of the eucharist. Sometimes people just stay at home and watch the sunday mass from the tv rather than go to church.