Psalm 100:4 (AMP) Enter into His gates with thanksgiving, And into His courts with praise. Be thankful to Him, and bless His name.
I’ve known Psalm 100:4 for as long as I can remember, but a few months ago I learned something new about it from my Pastor, Robert Morris. Found in that one verse are four of the seven Hebrew words for worship. Here’s how it breaks down in the Hebrew:
Enter into his gates with a thanksgiving choir and into his courts singing praises be thankful by extending your hands to him and bless him by bowing before His name.
I have expressed my worship to God by singing with a choir of thankful people at church. I have expressed my worship to God by singing praises all alone. I have expressed my worship to God by lifting my hands to Him, but up until a few months ago I had never expressed my worship to Him by bowing before His name.
I have never been apart of a church where people would get on the their knees and worship the Lord, until we became apart of Gateway three years ago. I still remember the first worship event I ever attended… people were kneeling- even the singers on stage. I figured maybe that was just because it was a women’s event and women are just natural worshippers, but then Pastor Robert came to the Frisco campus for a regular Sunday service…. during worship I glanced over in his direction and couldn’t find him. It was because he was down on his knees bowing before the Lord.
I never thought it was weird or flaky, in fact, I thought it was awesome, but it just wasn’t my worship style. I would rather stand and lift my hands than bow. It would be getting out of my comfort zone for sure. So I went about my standard ways of worship until one night I found myself so overwhelmed by His goodness I knew there was no other way of expressing it other than to kneel before Him. I talked myself out of it a few times during the first time we sang through the chorus, but I got my flesh to shut up long enough that by the second chorus I was bowing before His name. I felt something break that night… it was like this little pride wall I had built up came crashing down. There was no place I would have rather been that night then on my knees before my King.
I don’t know why I waited 27 years to express my worship in such a humbling way, but I’m thankful I didn’t wait 50 or 60 years, or until this scripture comes to pass
Romans 14:11 For it is written: “As I live, says the Lord, Every knee shall bow to Me, And every tongue shall confess to God.”
Your knees will hit the ground as you bow to God along with all of the other knees in the world on the day of judgement. Do you want that to be the first time you bow before the God that you owe everything to? I don’t think so!
He could have said, as I live, every hand shall clap for me or every foot will stomp for me, or every arm will be raised to me, or every body will dance for me, but he didn’t. He said every knee shall bow to Me. Why did He choose bowing over a great applause? I believe it’s because bowing is the most humbling of all the different types of worship.
If you’ve never expressed your worship by bowing before the Lord, I just want to encourage you to lay down your pride and go for it. God will be so very blessed as you bless His name in such an honoring way.
1 Peter 5:5 Yes, all of you be submissive to one another, and be clothed with humility, for “God resists the proud, But gives grace to the humble.”
- Pastor Robert’s great teaching on how to worship and express love to God.
- He practices what he preaches.
- I shut my flesh up, laid down my pride and worshipped God on my knees.
- He gives grace to the humble.
- Someday every knee will bow! And every tongue will confess!
- Revelation Song. What I was singing when I became so overwhelmed with His goodness.
- Gus is now in charge of getting Beau up every morning… they are so cute coming down stairs together with their little sleepy heads of hair.
- Finally got a play date in with the the Collin’s girls!
- Enjoyed getting to really talk with my friend Briana.
- The kids all had fun playing together! Gus and Beau were already planning the next play date on the way home.
- Beau took an extra long nap.
- Spent the afternoon with Batman… who looked an awful lot like Gus. He let me take some awesome pictures of him for the Gotham Post.
- I woke up from my nap to Beau laughing hysterically at a Pooh Bear short. She has never laughed at a TV show like that before. It was a fun way to wake up.
- Gus, who is not a fan of the grocery store, did not complain one time when I told him I forgot the pineapple for dinner and we had to make a trip to Kroger.
- I found a quarter in my purse when we were checking out so I got to reward him with a gum ball.
- Grilled pineapple.
- Josh cooked the caribbean jerk chicken for dinner perfectly.
- Jasmine rice. My new favorite rice. How is it so much better than minute rice?
- The chicken was too spicy for the kids, but they were more than satisfied with pineapple and turkey meat. Easy enough.
- It warmed up quite a bit this afternoon!
- Watching the kids play hide and seek in the front yard. Those two are pure joy.
- Finished the data entry project I’ve been trying to finish for a week.
- Skinna-ma-rink-a-dink-a-dink. Beau’s eyes were so big when I sang this to her before bed tonight. She asked for an encore.
- Nothing to do tonight but watch some T.V.
- Even though American Idol has been pretty awful this year Josh has stuck it out with me.
- The word God gave me at the beginning of the year that he reminded me of today.
- Josh laughs at my jokes… even the corny ones about historical figures.
10KReasons 
When I was growing up at our church, we always knelt to pray. Sometimes we would kneel at our seats and other times we would all go down to the altar. I can always remember on Sunday nights how my Dad would be the last one to get up from the altar. We did kneel down at Eastland Assembly too. We knew that it was a sign of submission. If I really want to get before the Lord in prayer it is easier to hear from him when you kneel and your focus is only on him. Loved to hear that people are still kneeling.
I LOVE hearing that Grandpa Wagner would be the last one up from the altar. He must be right at home in heaven forever worshipping.