{"id":36679,"date":"2011-03-03T20:12:00","date_gmt":"2011-03-04T02:12:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/?p=36679"},"modified":"2021-07-13T20:15:13","modified_gmt":"2021-07-14T01:15:13","slug":"is-it-wrong-to-sit-while-praying","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/is-it-wrong-to-sit-while-praying\/","title":{"rendered":"Is it wrong to sit while praying?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<h2>Question:<\/h2>\n<p>Believers in Orthodox churches have the biblical truth about body position during prayer. They stand, or kneel, but not sit, which I was taught is spiritual arrogance before the Almighty. Orthodoxy has lots of truth that evangelical protestants don&#8217;t. Remember that Jesus stood to pray. The apostolic church never sat to pray, except for the elderly or infirm. I still can&#8217;t make myself sit in any church at prayer. Notice the protestant pastor leading the service does not sit to pray, so why do their congregations?<\/p>\n\t<h2>Answer:<\/h2>\n<p>To make a biblical argument, a person needs to cite Scripture and not a particular group&#8217;s practices to establish the truth.<\/p>\n<p>We should take note that when the disciples asked Jesus to teach them to pray, Jesus never mentioned assuming a particular position during the prayer (Luke 11:1-4; Matthew 6:9-15).<\/p>\n<p>When we look at the prayers in the Bible, we find that those praying assumed a variety of positions:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Standing (Mark 11:25; Luke 18:10-14)<\/li>\n<li>Sitting (I Kings 19:1-5; Nehemiah 1:4)<\/li>\n<li>Lying down (II Kings 20:1-3)<\/li>\n<li>Kneeling (Luke 22:41-42; Acts 9:40)\n<ul>\n<li>Kneeling with hands spread toward heaven (I Kings 8:54; Ezra 9:5)<\/li>\n<li>Kneeling and bowing down (Psalm 95:6; Ezra 10:1)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>Bowing down (Psalm 35:13-14)<\/li>\n<li>Falling on their face (Matthew 26:39; Numbers 16:20-22)<\/li>\n<li>Lifting their face toward God (Daniel 9:3; Psalms 5:3)<\/li>\n<li>Uplifted hands (Psalm 28:2)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The wide variety indicates that there is no one set position in which a believer is to pray. Since both Elijah and Nehemiah sat to pray and neither were infirm, the idea that it is wrong to pray while sitting is false.<\/p>\n\t<h2>Response:<\/h2>\n<p>Many thanks for your good letter. You know, I have learned more from you through e-mails than I have learned in all my time going to churches here. My big problem is that I have not managed to study the Old Testament enough, so please excuse my ignorance. In my defense, I can only say that I am very much a novice in my Christian walk with the Lord, as you have gathered.<\/p>\n<p>Regarding prayer: I have been following the Orthodox Church&#8217;s practice. My big problem is that instead of trying to study Scripture on my own, I have been listening to the Orthodox priests, some of whom need to study the Scripture themselves.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Question: Believers in Orthodox churches have the biblical truth about body position during prayer. They stand, or kneel, but not sit, which I was taught is spiritual arrogance before the Almighty. Orthodoxy has lots of truth that evangelical protestants don&#8217;t. Remember that Jesus stood to pray. The apostolic church never sat to pray, except for&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[447,1510],"class_list":["post-36679","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-answer","tag-orthodox-church","tag-prayers"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":25938,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/can-we-pray-your-kingdom-come-today\/","url_meta":{"origin":36679,"position":0},"title":"Can we pray &#8220;Your kingdom come&#8221; today?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"September 11, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: As a member of the Lord's church, I have taken the position that today, we should not pray for \"Thy kingdom come\" as Jesus taught his disciples on how they should pray.\u00a0 The reason being is because today, the kingdom has already been established (Colossians 1:13). At the present\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Answer&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":62030,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/which-apostle-had-it-the-easiest\/","url_meta":{"origin":36679,"position":1},"title":"Which Apostle Had It the Easiest?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"July 26, 2023","format":false,"excerpt":"by Perry Hall Which apostle had it the easiest? James. That answer may be surprising. Even more surprising is why and how. In Acts 12, James is martyred first among the apostles. Some may question God's fairness, and may even complain, \"Why did God allow James to die but allowed\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Article&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":66225,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/is-it-proper-for-a-church-to-pray-together-silently\/","url_meta":{"origin":36679,"position":2},"title":"Is it proper for a church to pray together silently?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"January 28, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Good day, brother Jeffery, Thanks for always answering questions. They've been helpful to me and the people around me. I want to ask you a question about the orderliness of prayer in the church. Can the church pray such that a time is given during worship, such as 10\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Answer&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":37349,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/can-a-christian-believe-in-god-and-not-believe-in-prayer\/","url_meta":{"origin":36679,"position":3},"title":"Can a Christian believe in God and not believe in prayer?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"February 24, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Can a Christian believe in God but not believe in prayer? I'm a member of the church but I don't believe in prayer? How do I overcome that? Answer: Let's work backward. You say you don't believe in prayer, yet the Bible says that Jesus taught, \"Then He spoke\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Answer&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":13776,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/why-dont-protestants-say-the-rosary\/","url_meta":{"origin":36679,"position":4},"title":"Why don&#8217;t Protestants say the Rosary?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"February 2, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I'm a Catholic, and if you don't mind, I'd like to ask you a question about the Blessed Virgin Mary. Why is it that Protestants don't honor Mary as Catholics do?\u00a0 The rosary, for example, is very biblical, yet most Protestants don't pray it. Why is this? Answer: The\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Answer&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":19484,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/is-it-wrong-to-refer-to-god-as-jehovah-in-a-prayer\/","url_meta":{"origin":36679,"position":5},"title":"Is it wrong to refer to God as Jehovah in a prayer?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"July 18, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Is it wrong or scripturally incorrect to refer to God as Jehovah?\u00a0 For instance, when you pray to Him, to address Him as Jehovah.\u00a0In Matthew 6:9, Jesus is showing the disciples how to pray.\u00a0He starts with \"Our Father in Heaven.\" Since\u00a0Jesus never refers to God as Jehovah and when\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Answer&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36679","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36679"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36679\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36679"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=36679"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36679"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}