by David Falk | Download PDF | Purchase Hardcopy

The Scriptures continually speak about the importance of prayer and how we should pray. Paul says, ‘I desire therefore that men pray everywhere, lifting up holy hands, without wrath and doubting’. 1 Tim 2:8. Remember that Paul described himself as a ‘Hebrew of Hebrews’. When he spoke of lifting up holy hands, he was effectively quoting from the words of the great psalmist. ‘May my prayer be counted as incense before You; the lifting up of my hands as the evening offering.’ Psa 141:2.  

We’ll recall that King David brought the Ark of the Covenant, the symbol of the presence of God, up to Mt Zion. At this time, David replaced the burning of incense with prayer, and the sacrificial offerings with the lifting up of hands and with song. The lifting up of hands became a sweet aroma before the Lord in the same way as the burnt offering. So when Paul spoke of praying and lifting up holy hands, he was talking about more than uttering a few words in prayer. He's talking about a whole lifestyle of offering and prayer, symbolised in the lifting up of holy hands. This is the evidence of a man's life wholly given to God.  

‘I desire therefore that men pray everywhere, lifting up holy hands, without wrath and doubting.’ 1 Tim 2:8. We cannot lift up holy hands if we are filled with wrath. That's an interesting one.  We cannot pray if we are angry. The book of Proverbs has a lot to say about an angry man. ‘A man of great anger will bear the penalty, for if you rescue him, you will only have to do it again.’ Prov 19:19. The wise man was saying, to some degree anyway, ‘Don’t waste your time, because unless the person chooses to be delivered of their anger, you will not be able to help them’.

Paul also says that prayer needs to be ‘without doubting’. That does not imply that a Christian man's prayer life is filled with positive thinking, positive pursuits, or expectations of getting everything that he wants. A praying man demonstrates a demeanour, and has a tone about him, that is manifesting the aroma of Christ. Paul wrote in his letter to the Corinthians, ‘Thanks be to God who always leads us in triumph in Christ, and manifests through us the sweet aroma of the knowledge of Him in every place’. 2 Cor 2:14. When a man prays, lifting up holy hands, he will know triumph. We could say in the first instance, it is triumph over anger and doubting. A praying man is yielding his anger and yielding his doubting. He has given himself to prayer. It is the action of genuine surrender. Prayer is the antidote for anger, and prayer is also the antidote to doubting. Do you have doubts on a matter? Perhaps you’re not sure whether you should or shouldn't, can or can't. You will need to know the will of God and what He is asking of you by prayer.

Peter makes an interesting practical and relational statement. ‘Live with your wives in an understanding way … and show her honour … so that your prayers will not be hindered.’ 1 Pet 3:7. In relation to prayer, that’s a very interesting verse isn’t it? He is saying that the effectiveness of a man’s prayers, and the way he manifests the aroma of Christ, is largely dependant on properly relating to his wife. It is important that men from the youngest years know how to relate to women properly, not in a patronising or a dominating way, but in a Godly manner. This is obviously for the success of marriages, but also for the purpose of prayers being answered. Peter said, ‘So that your prayers will not be hindered’. 1 Pet 3:7.

One of the best known passages on prayer is found in the book of James. ‘The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much.’ James 5:16. Is your prayer effective? Is your prayer fervent? Fervency in prayer doesn’t mean a lot of noise, gestures, or grand protestations. Fervency in prayer is a zealous intent to maintain a continual prayer-life. It is like the continual burnt offering and the lifting up of hands, so that the aroma of Christ is being manifested both from you to God and from Him to you. The life of Christ is also coming to you.

What do we do when we are reviled? It says of Christ, ‘While being reviled, He did not revile in return’. 1 Pet 2:23. Peter says, ‘If you are reviled for the name of Christ, you are blessed, because the Spirit of glory and of God rests on you’. 1 Pet 4:14. If you are being reviled, and you don’t firstly go to prayer, you will quickly become offended. When you are reviled, prayer needs to be your platform, your fallback, the place where you retreat to. You need to go into the secret place. The secret place is the place of prayer. It could be in a car, in a room in your house, or it could be in your office at work. It could be anywhere. It's not a question of the location. It's a question of your relationship with the Father, Son and Spirit at the time. 

We must retreat to prayer to deal with being reviled, being insulted, or when lies are perpetrated against us. These are all the experiences of life. Somewhere, at sometime, somebody will misrepresent you. How do you get from being reviled to not ‘opening your mouth’ in defence and having the ‘Spirit of glory and of God rest upon you’? You are going to have to bring it before the Lord in prayer. If you don't, you will move to offence, and then from offence, you will move to justification.  

What is the antidote to justification, which is simply the need to plead your case? It says of Christ, ‘He did not open His mouth’. He was ‘like a lamb that is led to slaughter, and like a sheep that is silent before its shearers’. Isa 53:7. He didn't seek to justify Himself. What was there to say? He simply entrusted Himself to the Father. That was His mode throughout the entirety of His ministry. The Scriptures account, ‘In the early morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house, and went away to a secluded place, and was praying there’. Mark 1:35.

I want to encourage you to develop a mode in your life where the first thing you do in the morning is pray. Let Him awaken you to prayer each morning. This was the testimony of the psalmist, ‘I awoke, for the Lord sustains me’. Psa 3:5. And we read in the book of Isaiah, ‘He awakens Me morning by morning, He awakens My ear to listen’. Isa 50:4. It is also my intent that my last activity before I go to sleep at night is to pray. Now, when He awakens you in the morning, wait upon Him. Don't even utter words necessarily, but just wait upon Him. You need to do this, because your day is going to have successes and failures, reviling and flattery. All kinds of different things are going happen, and you need to have prepared your heart before God.    

The evidence of a man who prays is the aroma of Christ. It is answered prayer, and he has peace. Many of us are not attaining the thing that the Lord wants to give us, simply because we don't pray. It's as simple as that. Many of us, if we're really honest about it, don't have a sustainable structure of devotion and prayer.

I would suggest that you need to have three facets to your prayer life. The first is to ‘wait’ on the Lord. ‘Those who wait on the Lord shall renew their strength.’ Isa 40:31. The renewing of your strength is the antidote to anger, to justification, and to emotional overload. Waiting on the Lord is not about you talking to Him. It's about Him talking to you.

Secondly, you will need to read devotionally, and discharge your burden of prayer. You'll only discharge your anxieties, and find perspective in life, by prayer. Paul says, ‘Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God’. Phil 4:6. ‘Waiting’ on the Lord, is just that. It is the exercise of waiting. Then it is necessary to take the next step and begin discharging the burden of your prayer.

The third facet of an effective prayer life is intercession. Intercession is carrying the burden of others. It is having a word in season. It is having intent toward others. It is considering others constantly as the Holy Spirit prompts you. The evidence that a man is demonstrating his genuine manhood in prayer before God is that he is developing an intercessory prayer life. He has been able to get past being reviled and being offended. He is able to wait. He is not given to outbursts of wrath. All of these matters are easily, quickly and regularly brought into subjection. ‘We are taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ.’ 2 Cor 10:5. This is what prayer does, by waiting and then by devotion.

If you are reviled and move to anger and justification, you will not be able to intercede simply because you are preoccupied about your own life. Bring all your thoughts and concerns to the Lord by prayer, and overcome them, so that you can become a man of intercession. Through the course of your day, you will actually be attuned to the mind of Christ, and to the will of God. You will be sensitive to the leading of the Spirit so that your prayer through the course of the day is predominantly intercession. Then your day will not be consumed and preoccupied with your own reviling, your own anxiety, or your own concerns. We should ‘bear one another’s burdens, and thereby fulfil the law of Christ’. Gal 6:2. Prayer is the place where a godly man bears the burdens of others.

The evidence of a man who prays is that he manifests the aroma of Christ. That is the fragrant aroma of life as the will of God is triumphantly fulfilled. To me, the miracle of prayer is not about receiving the thing that I am praying for. It is seeing that the Lord has His way, and I am being a participant with Him as His will is done.   

Author: David Falk | Toowoomba Christian Fellowship TCF
Published by Vision One at Toowoomba Christian Fellowship TCF
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