Excitement in the boat, part 20: the Position Before the King

Seeing Jesus, he cried out and fell before Him, and said in a loud voice, "What business do we have with each other, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I beg You, do not torment me."  (For he had commanded the unclean spirit to come out of the man. For oftentimes it had caught him: and he was kept bound with chains and in fetters; and he brake the bands, and was driven of the devil into the wilderness.) (Luke 8:28, 29 KJV)

This tormented man, controlled by demonic forces, approached Jesus who, according to verse 29, took one look at the man, recognized the demonic possession, and commanded the unclean spirit to come out. As a rebellious, unclean spirit is prone to do, the spirit wanted to whine, beg, and argue before Him. 

The Holiness of God, however, could not be disregarded and, in a show of respect and subjugation, the man, in His presence, fell face-down on the ground at Jesus' feet. The demon had such control of the man that it was likely the demon that directed this move of apparent humility. It was not, however, that the demon intended the position to be an act of worship.  Instead, it was an act of manipulation, a groveling before God's Son in order to be spared torment and to get what he wanted. 

One day, every knee will bow before Our King, and at that time, every one of us will praise Him and acknowledge Him as Almighty God. We will all bow, but it will not be this bowing, as the demon-controlled man did. There will be no manipulation, no pleading, only praise and worship before the Lord. 

When we approach God, our tendency is to approach with requests, demands, whining. Perhaps, if we are honest with ourselves, we, too, sometimes bend the knee for purposes of manipulation and in order to get what we want rather than purely for worship. We would do well to evaluate the sincerity of our position before God. 

Pray today that we and our loved ones would recognize the holiness and righteousness of God and fall on our faces in worship and gratitude before Him, asking nothing, and giving all our praise and honor to Him. 

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Link to last night's post: (it's a new series) http://leannahollis.blogspot.com/2014/08/the-easy-prey-king.html

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We will have a new terrorist on our list this evening, but for today we are still praying for Hamas, as well as for the peace of Israel. One thing I'm praying for the leaders of Hamas is that now weapon of evil that they can devise will prosper and that, in the failure, they will driven towards doing good for their people.