For this reason I kneel before the Father,

Paul would now launch into another prayer session, a second prayer section. He said he kneels before the Father.

Rather than being embroiled in his own situation, Paul ventured to pray for the people. He understands that whatever was happening to his physical body does not cancel the spiritual reality of the new life in Christ.

He already mentioned the ruler of the spirit that is now energizing the sons of disobedience (Ephesians 2:2), and he refused to spend any ink on the people who put him in the suffering.

But by telling this church about that ruler, he wants them to realize that those who put him in prison were operating under that. He has insight into what is animating his opposers, just as Jesus said this is your hour and the power of darkness, when He was about to be arrested (Luke 22:53).

Paul, through spiritual revelation was able to lift his eyes away from his situation to the Father.

Rather than complaining to the Father and saying, "Why me?" he is praying to the Father and praying for the church. He is still fulfilling his responsibility to look after the church (2 Corinthians 11:28), though he could annot be physically present with them.

And I want to mention something about the posture of prayer. Let's not make a doctrine out of the posture of prayer. Let's not make too much of the fact that Paul said he knelt before the father, to now say all prayer must be done kneeling.

I hope no one is saying that, but if they are, then it is unfortunate.

Posture in the place of prayer is not a doctrinal issue, and it is childish to say it is.

When Jesus taught us to pray, he did not say when you kneel to pray, but rather when you pray (Luke 11:2). Prayer is about what you are saying.

This is not saying NEVER kneel, but to think of it as a way of scoring religious points is what I am warning against, so that we do not think we would be heard because we kneel rather than because we are in Christ, and through Him we can draw near to the throne of grace (Hebrews 4:16). Just as Jesus said some people thought they will be heard by their repetitious babbling (Matthew 6:7).

In another place, Paul said, “Don’t allow anyone to judge you with respect to food or drink, or in the matter of a feast, new moon, or Sabbath days—these are only a shadow of the things to come, but the reality is Christ” (Colossians 2:16–17).

Let's not be people who are piling on externalities that we can use to judge others and pat ourselves in the back for being better than others.

Don't arrive at this verse and think you now have a way to be heard by God, because you are kneeling as Paul did.

Paul knelt to pray, but he did not, at the same time, say that it is a way to be heard. That is why we come to the distinction between what is observed and what is commanded.

We observe Paul kneeling to pray, but we are not told that it is compulsory for us to do so. There are some compulsory things we may be ignoring and not place undue emphasis on other issues.

Like love your neighbor as yourself (Matthew 22:39), like do not lust (Matthew 5:28), do not be angry (Matthew 5:22), do not judge (Matthew 7:1), stuffs in the sermon on the mount that people want to say Jesus did not really mean what he said them.

But sometimes the carnal mind latches on to the physical things that could immediately create a visible distinction.

Neither in the Old Testament nor in the New Testament do we see the mandate of kneeling down. Even though Paul mentioned it, he did not tell people that it is one of the essentials of the gospel.

Remember certain people insisted that to be a true Christian, you must be circumcised (Acts 15). That shows you how vital the idea of being circumcised was in the minds of some Christians. They were willing to put their reputation on the line to push it because they were so sure they were correct, but no, it was called a burden, the Jewish leaders said in a nutshell, that though we do it, we cannot make it a burden on others, cannot make it a line to divide over.

Some things are just not that serious. The point is: Even though this line is in the bible, that does not mean we should not use good judgment to conclude that it is not saying that all must kneel to pray otherwise the prayer is wrong.