On Prayer (1 Tim. 2:8)

"I desire then that in every place the men should pray, lifting holy hands without anger or quarreling;" (1 Tim. 2:8)

Again, Paul stresses the importance of prayer. An interesting side note is that Paul calls on the men to pray, not the women. How do I know he is not giving this command specifically to women? Because in the next verse, he states, "likewise also that women should...." and gives a specific command to women, which we will visit later. What am I getting at, you may ask? Good question. Of course God desires women to pray, but it seems here Paul is stressing the importance of the men in the church praying and not causing conflict.

When a conflict arises in your life, what do you do? Do you deal with the conflict head on? Do you shy away from the conflict? Do you pray about the conflict?

I submit to you that, biblically, prayer should be our first action. If we are praying the way we are supposed to (without ceasing) then prayer will always be our first response to anything that arises in our life, whether good or bad. An interesting thing about prayer is that we can never pray enough. It's kind of like my golf game. No matter how well (or how bad) I play one day, I know that there is always the possibility of playing better the next time I tee it up. Prayer is similar in this in respect that no matter how much I pray or how meaningful I think my prayers are, I know there is the possibility that I could still pray more, for more people, and for more situations.

Because of this our prayer life will never be complete. Therefore, I've devised a daily prayer plan. Now, there are many of these types of plans available. What I have tried to come up with is a system for busy people. Have you ever gone an entire day and realized, "I haven't prayed at all today...." I'll admit to doing that. Therefore, in order to ensure that I at least have some prayer daily, I've had to give myself a schedule. Because we are instructed to pray for all people (1 Tim. 2:1) I've categorized my prayer list as follows:

Monday:

Family: Emily, my wife
Church: My pastor
Nation: President Bush
Congregation: I pick someone every day

Tuesday:

Family: My son, Jackson
Church: Music minister
Nation: Governor Sanford
Congregation: ditto

Wednesday:

Family: My parents
Church: Youth minister
Nation: Speaker of the House
Congregation: ditto

Thursday:

Family: My sister and her family
Church: A good friend in the ministry
Nation: Senate Majority Leader
Congregation: ditto

Friday:

Family: My in-laws and sister-in-law
Church: A good friend in the ministry
Nation: Presidents of SBC seminaries
Congregation: ditto

Saturday:

Family: Any extended cousins, etc. that come to mind
Church: A good friend in the ministry
Nation: South Carolina's football program (jk) SBC Missionaries that I know and don't know
Congregation: ditto

On Sundays, I'm selfish and ask God to be with me in my teaching, preaching, etc.

Now this list is pretty pathetic if you think about it. But even doing this little amount is better then none at all. And as you pray through this list specifically, God will place other people and situations on your heart and gives at least a little accountability with your prayer life. One of the biggest reasons our spiritual lives are not as good as they can be, is because we do not make ourselves accountable to anyone. Therefore, making yourself accountable to yourself may help just a little.