CAPA Corner

    While traveling with my family through a rain storm on I-49 I was gradually moving past an 18-wheeler in the left lane when suddenly our Explorer hydroplaned. We spun 270 degrees facing the ditch in the median. We spun again this time facing the ditch on the right side of the interstate. We spun once more 360 degrees and the vehicle slowed enough to “safely” take the ditch. 
    Obviously we survived but during the wild ride my only prayer was, “Jesus help us!” My posture was not one of kneeling, one of bowed head, or closed eyes. And, rather than clasped hands I was white knuckling the steering wheel. 
    Apostle Paul wrote to a church that he bowed his knees before his Heavenly Father (Ephesians 3:14). I often literally bow my knees before my Heavenly Father but every time I pray it is less about my physical posture and more about praying in a soulful, spiritual, attitudinal posture of submission.
    Every prayer offered to our holy God is to be spoken in a posture of submission to Him. This submission is “postured” in at least two ways. One, by recognizing God as the source of all good things – “from whom every family in heaven and earth is named” (Ephesians 3:15). I got my family name from my father. It is a statement about his fatherhood in my life. Eric Alexander wrote, “We have not projected the idea of fatherhood onto God; all that is good in human fatherhood derives from God and is an imperfect reflection of His fatherhood.”  He is the source of all good things.
    And, two, a prayerful posture of submission to God is taken by recognizing God’s sovereignty. That God may grant one’s petition are words spoken by a believer that not only recognizes God’s sovereignty over everything but also rests in God’s wisdom to sovereignly grant the right thing. I don’t always know what to pray for in specifics but I know to whom to pray. 
    So as a believer that is motivated by Christ and for Christ, my posture of heart and attitude in prayer is one of submission. Especially while hydroplaning on an interstate!
Jeff Stanfill
Covenant Church