Paul Baloche - Christmas Worship DevotionsSýnishorn

O Holy Night 

"...Fall on your knees..."

As a child, it felt like the whole earth was holding its breath on Christmas Eve. Way beyond the gifts, food and frolic, Christmas Eve was holy. On that one night, all the prayers and songs and scriptures rising up seemed to brighten the very air, and for the briefest moment, the weary world felt peaceful.

But it didn't last. It couldn't last, because mankind can only devote so much time to adoration, and then has to return to business as usual. 

In how many school assemblies and church programs did we sing that famous stanza "...fall on your knees...?" Although this song didn't seem too radical a few years ago, those very words will probably create a national controversy before too long. Satan hates these words so much he will probably campaign to make them illegal! Can you imagine a day when it's illegal to sing Christmas carols in public? Seems impossible, but then, we never thought organized prayer would be removed from public schools, or that killing the unborn would be funded by our government. 

Like a scenario from some science fiction novel about the future, we could easily live to see a day when classic hymns of adoration are publicly heard no more. Why? Because these songs aren't just classic… they’re songs of defiance. They take a stand and point us to the God who looms above all governments, all nations, all principalities and all powers. They speak of the Child whom Herod feared. They exalt the Child whom Nero denied. They worship the Child whom Mao Tse-Tung despised. And they glorify the Child whom this world rejects.

These men, and so many like them, did everything within their earthly power to resist Jesus and to annihilate the Kingdom He was born to establish. Can you imagine how much they must have hated and feared these words of Philippians 2:9-11? "Therefore God also has highly exalted Him and given Him the name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and of those under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father." 

So when we fall on our knees before the Lord, it isn't just an act of surrender, it's an act of civil disobedience against all that this world worships. When we sing of our loyalty and love for Jesus, we are drawing a line in the sand...choosing the place from which we will declare, "As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord." And someday soon, those simple words will be considered a declaration of war against the kingdoms of this world. 

So when you hear this antique Christmas carol, be mindful of the incredible power hidden within its poetic words (and don't forget to fall on your knees).