The hardest thing for a sinner to do is to bow before God in repentance. “Oh God, I am and have been all along dead wrong. There is not one thing I can offer you from my life. I am only a sinner in urgent need of Your mercy. Please save me, O God.” Repentance is a 180 degree shift in one’s thinking and Jesus said on more than one occasion: Except you repent, you will perish. No one will ever be in Heaven without a time in their life when they repented and bowed the knee of their heart to God.

But in Psalm 5, it seems King David bowed the knee of his heart every morning to His King. Although David reigned on the throne of Israel, God reigned on the throne of David’s heart. I wonder if David’s personal attendants used to tip-toe around early in the morning and whisper to each other as they watched their King bow his knees in prayer to His King. David said:

Sadly, too often we fail to bow our knees to our King. It seems we rule supreme in our own lives. We call the shots. We make the decisions. We decide what is right and wrong. We make the choices. We express our opinions. We do what we want to do. We wear the crown. We wield the scepter. We sit on the throne and cross our legs and swing our foot and rest our arms on the throne chair. We adjust our crown to make it feel more comfortable on our head.

Or sometimes we treat our Sovereign Lord as a figurehead. We go through the routines of calling Him King and Lord, but we still do what WE want to do. Often people say this about Canada’s parliamentary system : ‘Queen Elizabeth II is just a figurehead. The Government of Canada makes all the decisions and the Queen just rubberstamps everything – no real power or force in the lives of Canadians. She looks nice on our stamps. But in reality – when do we let her make the decisions on our behalf? When do we consult her?’ Sadly we can treat our Heavenly King like that too. A figurehead – expecting Him to rubberstamp the decisions we have made and the directions we are pursuing. We go through the motions of praying – but do we say: “My King and my God – please control and direct my life.”?

Have we surrendered our lives to Him as believers? Did you surrender this day to Your King? Have you stepped down off the throne of your heart and asked Him to take over. Have you watched Christ ascend the steps of your heart’s throne and have you bowed your knees as He took His rightful place on the throne of your heart? Did you fall before Him and say: “My King and My God – I surrender all to Thee.” Jennie Hussey wrote these words back in 1921:

A fresh appreciation of Calvary will cause me to bow my knee today and gladly call Him “My King and My God.”