Bow Down

“Worship the Lord your God and serve Him only” (

Luke 4:8)

We don’t seem to bow down and worship in church very much anymore.  We stand and raise hands to worship as we sing praise songs.  Not that that is not good.  But bowing down?  We don’t do much of that anymore.  Or do we?

Let’s stop and consider if there may be some things we bow down to in our life.  Things we should not bow down to.  Things Satan loves to see people bow down to – including Christ followers.  I’m talking about worldly culture and ways.  And of course, money.   We do a lot of bowing down to money and material possessions. 

Now you might be thinking that you don’t bow down to this world.  You might feel pretty convinced that you worship God only.  But what would you do if your refusal to bow down to the god of this world cost you a great price.  Daniel in the Old Testament did a lot of bowing down.  In fact, he bowed down to God three times a day to worship.  But he refused to bow down to the gods of Babylon, even when King Darius said his refusal would be punished with a sleepover in the lion’s den.  The three Hebrew children refused to bow down to King Nebuchadnezzar’s image even though they were met with the promise of three hot seats in a fiery furnace.  And let us not forget Esther’s Uncle Mordecai whose Jewish families were nearly destroyed because he refused to bow down and worship Haman.  We can learn much from these brave men who refused to subdue themselves before anyone but their God.  But our greatest example is Christ himself when he refused to bow down to Satan even though the evil one promised him the kingdoms of the world. 

So, the thing we need to ask ourselves is this: Do we bow down to anything other than our Lord?  Do we bow down to people who can give us what we think we want?  Do we bow down to the almighty dollar?  Do we bow down to sin, hoping it will bring us the fulfillment we are looking for?  Do we bow down to social media, seeking truth from a place where we will never find it? 

Or do we truly bow our lives, our hopes, our dreams down before God; trusting him for the fulfillment we so desperately need?  Let’s take a lesson from an Old Testament prophet like Daniel; or the three Hebrew children; or Uncle Mordecai.  But mostly, let us learn from our Savior and Lord Jesus Christ, who didn’t fall to his knees when he looked Satan in the eyes. 

                                                             Darlene