With such a variety of prayer postures in the Bible, I think we should assume that taking one particular posture for prayer is not the main issue in prayer. The primary issue is that you actually talk to the Lord when you pray. Do be aware, though, that certain postures lend themselves more readily to certain types of praying; for example, lying prostrate on your face seems more appropriate for repentance than lying on your bed. But try to find a mix of prayer postures that best allow you to pray.
When I first started to learn how to pray on my own, I thought that I had to kneel when I prayed. Most of the people I had read about who were pray-ers were also kneel-ers. For example, a second-century Christian named Hegesippus records that James, the half-brother of Jesus, “was frequently found situated upon his knees asking forgiveness for the people, so that his knees became hard after the manner of a camel, on account of always bending down upon a knee while worshipping God and asking forgiveness for the people.”[1] As a young man, I so wanted to have camel knees!
But when I tried it, I kept falling asleep while kneeling next to my bed. (I had no idea it was possible to fall asleep on my knees! My grandson might say that that was my superpower.)
I tried standing, pacing around my room, and sitting on a comfortable chair with my hands turned upward. It took two years from the time I committed myself to develop a personal prayer life to find a prayer posture that really worked for me. The breakthrough came when I learned that my beloved teacher, David Needham, took daily prayer walks. “What? You can walk and pray at the same time?” I decided to try it and, as a result of his example, have been prayer-walking for the past four decades.
But walking and trying to pray is not going to work well for many people, especially for people who get easily distracted by things they see.
So let me list out other prayer postures you might try that I’ve found in the Bible, since there is such a variety in the Bible itself, with the goal of helping you grow in your times of prayer.
- Standing. Hannah stood while she prayed for God to give her a child (1 Sam 1:26). Jesus prayed while standing before the tomb of Lazarus just before raising him from the dead (John 11:41). Psalm 4:4 says that we should, “Stand in awe.” In one parable of Jesus, both characters are standing for prayer in the temple (Luke 18:10-14). In 2 Chronicles 20:13 it says that the whole congregation of Israel stood before the Lord.
- Lifting or stretching out one’s hands. 1 Timothy 2:8 encourages, “I desire then that in every place the men should pray, lifting holy hands.” Psalm 141:2 reads, “Let my prayer be counted as incense before you, and the lifting up of my hands as the evening sacrifice!” (Cf. Exod 9:29)
- Lifting eyes upward. Now, in certain situations it’s a good idea to close your eyes in prayer to keep from being distracted by the things around you. But frequently in the Bible, people lift their open eyes upward. Psalm 121:1 says, “I lift up my eyes to the hills. From where does my help come?