PARENTHOOD
a divine stewardship

If you pray in every place, your living will be transformed, and the church in your locality will be transformed also. Some brothers may not be entirely satisfied with the church in their locality. The only way for the church in your locality to be satisfying to you is for you to pray at every time and in every place. Instead of discussing the situation of the church, pray for the church. The normal life of the brothers in the church is to pray in every place.

B. Lifting Up Holy Hands

When we pray in every place, we should lift up holy hands. Hands are a symbol of our doings. Hence, holy hands signify a holy living, a living sanctified and separated unto God. Such a holy life strengthens our prayer life. When our hands are not holy, our living is not separated unto God. We then have no supporting strength to pray, no holy hands to lift up in prayer.

In prayer, we should not lift up our eyes to observe others, but lift up holy hands. If you are watchful over the elders and the saints in a critical way, your prayer life will be killed. But if you lift up holy hands, your prayer will be strengthened.

C. Without Wrath and Reasoning

In verse 8 Paul also urges the brothers to pray "without wrath and reasoning." Wrath and reasoning kill our prayer. Wrath is of our emotion, and reasoning is of our mind. To have a prayer life and pray unceasingly, our emotion and mind must be regulated to a normal condition under the control of the Spirit in our spirit.

The Greek word for reasoning means disputatious reasoning. What Paul is speaking of here is not normal or ordinary reasoning, but a reasoning filled with disputation. We must avoid this if we are to pray properly.

Paul's word about not having disputatious reasonings is related to his admonition to lift up holy hands. If we close our eyes and lift up our hands, we shall be able to pray. But if we open our eyes to consider others and reason about their situation, we shall not be able to pray. Instead of lifting up our hands, we may clasp them behind our back. Who can pray with his hands clasped behind his back? But if we lift up our hands and refrain from disputatious reasoning, we shall be able to pray in a proper way.

From experience I have learned that our prayer life can be affected by our mood. If I do not keep myself in a proper mood, my prayer life is put to death. Anger always destroys our prayer life for a period of time. If a brother loses his temper with his wife, he may find that he cannot pray properly for a few days. If we are to have a prayer life, we must learn not to be moody or angry with others. By the Lord's grace that is with our spirit, we must exercise a strict control over our emotion.

II. THE SISTERS

In verse 9, Paul turns to the sisters. He begins this verse with the word "similarly." This refers to "I will" in verse 8. It may also indicate that Paul's word about praying in every place applies to the sisters as well as to the brothers.

A. Adorning Themselves

Verse 9 says, "Similarly, that women adorn themselves in proper clothing with modesty and sobriety, not with braided hair and gold or pearls or costly clothing." Proper clothing denotes what is fitting to the sisters' nature and position as saints of God. Clothing in Greek implies deportment, demeanor. Clothing is the main sign of a sister's demeanor, and it must befit her saintly position.

The Greek word rendered modesty literally is shamefastness, that is, bound or made fast by an honorable shame (Vincent), implying not forward or overbold, but moderate, observing the proprieties of a woman.

Sobriety denotes sober-mindedness, self-restraint. It means to restrict oneself soberly and discreetly. The sisters in a local assembly should clothe themselves with these two virtues—shamefastness and self-restraint—as their demeanor....

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