I Fall Face Down

As a kid, my family attended a very traditional church.  It was complete with a church organ on one side of the stage and the piano on the other.  A choir robbed and rehearsed marched down the aisle during the morning prelude on Sundays.  The hymnal songs were picked, three verses sung and the offering taken.  Sunday morning Bible study group was called "Sunday School".  And you could count on two big events happening every year....the annual revival services and Vacation Bible School.  I love my church upbringing.  It taught me A LOT about the Bible, developed a passion in me for church, the Lord and outreach.  It was in a revival service that I gave my heart to the Lord when I was twelve years old, so the structure of church and Sunday services is not lost on me.  However, it wasn't until I was touring with a ministry team that I encountered different worship styles and Sunday morning services.  Our team was hosted by various church denominations and many times we attended church with these host families.  This opened my eyes to a whole new view of worship and church traditions. 

It was when my husband and I started attending church together as a newly married couple that I began looking at what "worship" meant to me.  Because of my background and the type of church I was raised in, outward expressions of worship wasn't common to me or comfortable.  I wasn't used to being in a church that encouraged the congregation to raise their hands, clap their hands, dance and shout.  So when our worship leader would tell the congregation to raise their hands, I would get that nervous, uncomfortable feeling in my stomach and try to hide the fact that I wasn't raising my hands.  When the worship leader continued to prod the congregation to comply, I felt like I was being commanded and I rebelliously shoved my hands in my pockets.  Who were they to tell me how to worship?  I admit, I had a really bad attitude about it, simply because I was uncomfortable.

I do believe that worship is a personal experience and thank goodness we live in a country where we can choose to worship however we want.  Lift your hands, stay seated, jump for joy....I believe with the right heart, it is all beautiful to God.  But after I started attending a different church that was even more active in their worship, I decide just being uncomfortable wasn't a good enough excuse.  It was time to research the Word.  The Bible has a lot to say about worship.  In the Old Testament, we can find references to how the people reacted in the presence of kings....they knelt face down before them.  Imagine that for a second....face on the floor.  The floor where people walked, where animals were paraded as gifts, where prisoners were brought before the king.  That floor, face down, lips on the ground.  It had to be humbling.  And that is what it was meant for....to present humility before the king. 

This past Sunday we sang a song with the words, "At your cross I fall face down, at your feet I lay myself......I fall face down to show my love."  Those words hit me in the middle of singing them.  "Face down"...."I fall face down to show my love."  Are we willing to do that?  In our 2012 society where we pride ourselves on....well, pride....could we humble ourselves enough to fall face down.  When we take great pains to look right, act right, follow tradition and hold to expectations, could we really shirk all of that to become so aware of who God is and who we are that we would be moved to fall face down?  And how would those around us respond, seeing us laying there, kissing the floor?
 
After a few short months of attending this church, I began chipping away at my reserved feelings of worship.  I started feeling free to raise my hands and clap with the music.  But what really broke down the walls was when I stood, in khaki, in prison, at an outdoor worship service void of all my comforts.  I stood in the middle of murderers, prostitutes, drug addicts, thieves, abusers, drunks and more who were all worshiping the same God. It was in that moment that I became so aware of who I was, a sinner...who God was, powerful and perfectly just....where I was, at the bottom....what I had to give, nothing but a broken heart....what I had been full of, pride....who I had fooled, no one.  In that moment, I caught a faint glimpse of myself in parallel to God's glory and His love for me....when I realized that, truly got a grip on that, I could respond in one way.  I fell face down.  Right there, in the middle of everyone.  Not because the worship leader told me to, but because finally, I had seen what I truly was without the redeeming blood of Jesus.  I didn't deserve it....it hit me how much I didn't deserve it. And a King like that deserves my humility and utmost respect and overwhelming love.  How could I exhibit such love, such humble adoration and respect?  I fell face down.....to show my love. 

2 Chronicles 20:18-19  The Message (MSG)

^18-19 Then Jehoshaphat knelt down, bowing with his face to the ground. All Judah and Jerusalem did the same, worshiping God. The Levites (both Kohathites and Korahites) stood to their feet to praise God, the God of Israel; they praised at the top of their lungs!

Revelation 7:11  New International Version (NIV)

¹¹ All the angels were standing around the throne and around the elders and the four living creatures. They fell down on their faces before the throne and worshiped God,