1 Timothy 2:8 I desire therefore that the men pray everywhere, lifting up holy hands, without wrath and doubting;

Have you ever thought about how people pray around the world? Not the way they stand, bow down, kneel or lay down but their attitude.

The first thing which caught me in this verse when I read it today was the words “without wrath and doubting”.

Often when we do not get our own way we tend to be very vocal about things and say things we may not mean.

Are we doing the same toward God in our prayer life? Are we arguing with God instead of praising and pleading?

Psalm 141:2 Let my prayer be set before You as incense, The lifting up of my hands as the evening sacrifice.

Can you imagine what it must have been like in the days of regular offerings of incense and sacrifices? You would be able to smell the incense every morning and the sacrifices at the appropriate times.

They would be a very visible and tangible mark of respect for God; something that may well seem like it is lost in modern society.

The psalmist wants his prayers to have the same perceived importance as the age old sacrificial offerings; not because he wants others to see his prayers but that God should look upon them with the same importance.

He does!

Psalm 134:2 Lift up your hands in the sanctuary, And bless the Lord.

What use is a priest or church leader who gets up and just says a bunch of words and calls it a prayer?

What use is it if we read something out of a book and don’t mean it in our hearts?

God wants this relationship between Him and us to be open and Honest. This means talking to Him from the heart and not from a page!

How do you show God you mean what you say in your prayers?