Mensa Otabil - Praying Without Pretension

Watch
Donate

Well, we’ve had a great week looking at Paul’s instructions to us in 1 Timothy chapter 2, and we are focused on the aspects that relate to prayer. He starts by telling us to pray for all men and to pray for civil authority. Then he tells us who should be the focus of our prayer: the one God, Jesus, the mediator. He tells us to pray for all people, and then he tells us how to pray and the attitudes we must have in prayer.

So, this is the final one in 1 Timothy 2:9 and 10: «In like manner also, that the women adorn themselves in modest apparel, with propriety and moderation, not with braided hair or gold or pearls or costly clothing, but which is proper for women professing godliness, with good works.» Now, this sometimes is a bit controversial when it comes to the instructions here. If you take it out of the context of prayer, you may misunderstand what Paul is saying.

Remember, he said first to the men to lift up holy hands. He didn’t just mean that men are the only ones who can lift up holy hands; women can, too. But he chooses to talk about the men because they were the leaders in prayer. However, women also pray. Then he talks about, «in the same manner,» addressing the women. Is this instruction only for women? No, it affects men as well because there is a general application of this instruction.

Basically, this instruction is about how we present ourselves before God. How do we come before God? Do we come adorned with goodness or adorned with our clothes? How do we show ourselves before God? Do we come in hypocrisy, or do we come in truth? Do we come with our hearts, or do we come with the things that we have covered ourselves with?

The first thing Paul says is when we come before God in prayer, we must be modest. We don’t come to prayer being bombastic or using big, fanciful words, trying to impress God with flowery and verbose language. Just as women who put on all kinds of adornment, the body is very little, but the attire and clothing are huge, and you don’t really get to know the person who is adorned.

So, Paul says when you come before God, don’t adorn yourself with stuff; come as you are. That’s the instruction he’s given. He means that we must not pretend. Let us not pretend in prayer. You know, people sometimes have a form in which they pray and the language they use in prayer, which is very different from their ordinary day-to-day English.

So, when people are praying, sometimes even the tone changes. They take on a different tone and use words differently; they throw their words in a different direction which differs from their usual conversation. Now, when you do that, you are adorning yourself without modesty; you are just pretending before God, and God wants us to come as we are. Speak to Him as you normally speak. Don’t try to memorize some flowery language to impress God.

When we come before God, our good works must follow us. We cannot come before God adorned in evil, vengeance, or all kinds of bad practices and still stand before God, hoping that God hears us. Our adornment must be our goodness. We come before the Lord even if we have sinned; we ask Him for forgiveness, but we come adorned with goodness and good works.

This instruction, which uses the female or woman as the pivot, is not only for women; it is for all of us on how to adorn ourselves when we come before God in prayer. I trust that the things we’ve learned in prayer will enrich our prayer life. When we come before the Lord, we come just as we are without pretense in modesty and present our requests before the Lord. The one true God will hear us and answer our prayer.

Let us pray. Say with me: «Heavenly Father, I come before You just as I am, without pretense. All my own righteousness is in Jesus' name. Amen and amen.»