Mark Cowan
Praying Men
1 Timothy 2:3 This is good, and pleases God our Savior, 4 who wants all men to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth. 5 For there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, 6 who gave himself as a ransom for all men–the testimony given in its proper time. 7 And for this purpose I was appointed a herald and an apostle–I am telling the truth, I am not lying–and a teacher of the true faith to the Gentiles. 8 I want men everywhere to lift up holy hands in prayer, without anger or disputing.
Go outside today and look up and down your street. If someone threatened to attack the families on your street, do you think the men in those homes would come out into the street to defend their community?
I’d like to think they would. Well, our communities are under attack, but the invading army is invisible. We’re engaged in spiritual warfare, and Paul lays the lions share of the responsibility for repelling the enemy’s attack at the feet of Christian men. The primary weapon we have to fight with is prayer.
We see the men’s responsibility most clearly in verse 8 where the word men is not the generic word for the human race, but the specific term for “males.” But before we get to verse 8, we need to back up and see what this prayer should include.
Before we go any further, let me tell you what I’m not saying. I’m not saying only men are supposed to pray. The context here is the public worship of the church, and it’s clear that in this setting men are to take the lead in prayer. But every Christian is to pray. I’m also not saying that prayer is the only thing you do. It’s just the first thing you do. You have to start with a divine frame of reference. You have to bring God into the equation, or your equation won’t add up.
So Paul exhorts us to pray for everyone in authority in the public sector so that communities will be at peace. But this is not just peace and quiet for the sake of peace and quiet. The object of this tranquility is to free us from distractions so we can focus on living godly lives. It also promotes the spread of the Gospel so people come to the knowledge of the truth.
Some may say, “wait a minute. I thought the church grew best under persecution.” That may be true, but we aren’t told to pray for persecution. We are told to pray specifically for peace. Christian men, we have quite a prayer agenda. Could it be that one reason our communities and our nation are deteriorating is because God’s men are not praying?
We’re under attack, but the answer is not to take to the streets. The answer is to take to our knees!!
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