Praying everwhere

I desire therefore that the men pray everywhere, lifting up holy hands, without wrath and doubting;  - 1 Timothy 2.8

Prayer is one of those areas that is a faith tester. After 40 years I still don’t understand where some prayers get answered and some ‘don’t.’ I don’t understand why sometimes bad things happen when I do pray and sometimes good things happen when I forget to pray or just don’t pray about it.

I don’t think we really have to ‘get it’ all the time. I think we just need to do what Paul says and simply pray.

We ought to pray with uplifted holy hands. Those uplifted holy hands can he literal or figurative, but they must be holy. This idea of holiness means hands ‘which have committed no impiety, and observed every sacred duty.’

Our praying must be done from hearts that strive for holiness and piety. We know from other places that prayers can be hindered by sins we refuse to deal with. Prayers should be offered up in holiness.

Prayers must also be offered without wrath. There is no room for anger or wrath or bitterness or clamouring when we pray. We can’t expect God to hear our prayers when we are not right with others.

And then we should pray without doubt. Without doubt means that we have no doubt that God is going to do what is best no matter how it turns out for us. We may not get what ‘we want’ but we need to be sure that we are in no doubt that what God does is exactly what we really need.

Pray everywhere

Pray in holiness

Pray without anger

Pray without doubt

We don’t really have to understand all the theology – just do it.