First of all, then, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all people.
Prayer is the first work, not the leftover after you have managed everyone.
Week 1 of 4
Men should pray
Before you lead anyone, lift holy hands, and put the anger down.
I desire therefore that the men in every place pray, lifting up holy hands without anger and doubting.
1 Timothy 2:8
Paul says first of all that petitions, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made. Then he desires that men in every place pray, lifting holy hands without anger or argument. The order is the rebuke. A man wants to be heard as the spiritual one in the house, and his hands are still full of the quarrel. Jesus’ disciples asked him to teach them to pray. He gave them a Father, daily bread, forgiveness, and a warning about temptation. You do not graduate from that into lectures. You start there.
Scripture
Formal study reading, written for this series
Formal study reading, written for this series
I desire then that in every place the men should pray, lifting holy hands without anger or quarreling.
The men are addressed. The hands have to be empty of the fight.
Lord, teach us to pray. And he said, When you pray, say: Father, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come. Give us each day our daily bread, and forgive us our sins, for we ourselves forgive everyone who is indebted to us. And lead us not into temptation.
The disciples asked for a prayer, and he gave them a Son’s words.
NASB, the Amplified, and the ESV open on Bible Hub. The Legacy Standard Bible opens on its own reader. Close, Expanded, and Easy on this page are original study readings. WEB is the World English Bible, public domain.
Holy hands are not dramatic hands
Paul does not tell men to feel spiritual. He tells them to pray without anger and without a dispute still running. That is the qualification that hits a husband. You can have a verse and a loud voice and still be disqualified from the kind of prayer Paul wants, because the person you are about to pray for is the person you are armed against. Holy here is hosios, devout, clean in the sense of loyal. It is not a show of intensity.
Luke 11 keeps a man a learner. “Teach us” is the right first sentence. The prayer he is given will not let him ask for bread while he refuses to forgive a debt. If your prayers at home skip forgiveness, they have already left the pattern Jesus taught. First of all, pray. And pray as a son, not as a foreman.
In the house
Before any attempt to lead a conversation about God, pray for ten minutes with the anger named and set down. If you cannot pray without rehearsing her faults inside the prayer, you are not ready to teach. You are ready to repent.
Use the Lord’s prayer as the actual words this week when your own words become a speech. Father. Your name. Bread. Forgiveness. Do not add a sermon in the middle.
Seven days
At the table
- 1What argument is still in your hands when you pray?
- 2Do you pray first, or only after you have tried to control the day?
- 3Which line of the Lord’s prayer do you skip because it judges you?
- 4Who in the house is absent from your actual prayers?
Your note
Stays on this device. No account.
A prayer
Father, teach me to pray. I have lifted my voice with anger still in my hands, and I have called it leadership. Hallowed be your name in this house. Give us this day what we need. Forgive me, and make me a man who forgives. Lead me away from the temptation to perform. I want holy hands. Amen.