I
want men everywhere to lift up holy hands in prayer, without anger or disputing.
—1 Timothy 2:8
Verse 8 reminds us that God would have all men
everywhere pray. We are to lift up holy hands. This is a picture of the Jewish
attitude of prayer, which is different from ours. One way they prayed was palms
upward, lifting up their holy hands. It was not just a ritual, but it was to
remind them that they were stained and unclean, and that they needed to confess
their sin. And so the emphasis is on lifting up HOLY hands.
The Greek word holy, of course, means set
apart. We’re clean and righteous because of what Christ did, not because
of what we do, and so we lift up these holy hands to God.
One of the things that my mother taught me early
was that whenever we have a picture of uplifted hands before God, it is the
hands of a beggar coming to the benefactor and admitting that he is absolutely
hopeless. Without the intervention of Jesus Christ in our lives, we are
absolutely hopeless and lost in our sin. Without the intervention of God, the
one who can do all things, our church is doomed.
Because of what Christ did, we come as unclean
beggars who have been made holy and righteous. Because of Jesus, we can come to
God expectant of Him doing great and mighty things. If you really believe that
God can do great things, ask Him to teach you what it means to pray personally,
so that God can do great and mighty things through you and your church.
Pray, confessing your sins and asking God to teach you to pray more faithfully and more biblically.