Mensa Otabil - Praying With a Good Attitude

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We’re still learning about prayer from First Timothy Chapter 2. Paul the Apostle is writing to Timothy, who was the pastor of the Church of Ephesus, and he tells him how to conduct the church. There are several instructions he gives him, and we are focusing on this one in Chapter 2.

So, we look at verse 8. We looked at it yesterday, but we’ll look at it again today: «I desire, therefore, that men pray everywhere, lifting up holy hands, without wrath and doubting.» Our attitudes in prayer affect the answers we receive or how God responds to our prayers. The Lord Jesus Christ clearly taught that forgiveness was essential in prayer. He taught it in the Sermon on the Mount. He taught it in the prayer He taught the disciples, what we call the Lord’s Prayer. He was at pains to teach that in many parts and in response to many questions. He taught about forgiveness as a prerequisite in prayer.

So, we can’t really run away from it. Christianity does not encourage unforgiveness, and prayerfulness requires forgiveness. It’s in the Lord’s Prayer. Here it is repeated that when we lift up holy hands to God, it should be without wrath and without doubting. God says that when we come before Him, we pray without wrath. In other words, we don’t allow our anger and our pain to drive our prayer. Unfortunately, sadly, a lot of prayer these days is driven by wrath, anger, and frustration, and a determination to get even with somebody becomes the focus of our prayer.

There are many times that prayer points and prayer topics are introduced that are full of anger and wrath and vengeance. But the Scriptures are very clear: you cannot be praying those kinds of prayers, calling fire on your enemies and calling destruction on your enemies, and praying all those wrathful prayers. The Scriptures are clear, both from our Lord Jesus Christ Himself and from the apostles He chose, who gave us the foundation of our faith. We pray without wrath.

So, if there is wrath in your heart and anger in your heart when you turn to prayer, you don’t verbalize it in your prayer. It’s not part of the way we pray as Christians, so just be mindful of that. No matter how strongly you feel about seeing somebody pay for what they have done wrong against you, you cannot make that a part of your prayer.

The second point is that we pray without doubting. The word «doubting,» as we find it in the New King James, can be a bit misleading. It means to be of two minds or to have two opposed positions, but it should rather be understood as disputing, which means quarreling. So, when we come before God in prayer, we don’t come with our quarrels before God. «Oh, but God, this one says that and that one says this; settle our quarrel for us.» Oh, Lord, God doesn’t settle quarrels for us in prayer.

In prayer, we do not pray our quarrels before the Lord. The Lord wants the church to be in unity. He says that when two of us agree concerning anything on Earth and we pray, He would do it for us in heaven. So, it’s important that as much as is possible with us, we endeavor for the unity of the body of Christ and for the unity of Christians. Prayer meetings should not become a place where we settle disputes and quarrels and issues we have with other people.

Of course, if somebody is teaching a false doctrine, we have to admonish the person, but we have to mention it directly to them, not in prayer. When we come praying, we are praying in unity. We are praying in love. We are praying through forgiveness, not through wrath and not through disputing.

So, Paul tells us we lift up holy hands and we pray without wrath, and we pray without disputing and without quarreling. That’s not what prayer is about. Let’s pray. Say with me: «Heavenly Father, let the lifting up of my hands be as a sweet and holy fragrance before You, in Jesus' name. Amen and amen.»