When you pray, you must
not be like the hypocrites.
—Matthew 6:5
“I desire then that in every place men should pray, lifting holy hands without anger or quarreling” (1 Tm 2:8).
Here Paul lays down two ingredients of acceptable prayer:
First, it must come from a pure heart—“lifting holy hands.” So the first order of business is self-examination.
Second, it must be governed by a right relationship with one another—eliminating anger and quarreling.
Two principles: first, being right with God, and second, being right with our brothers and sisters. Purity and peace are indispensable to proper prayer.
A head-bowed, heartfelt, “God be merciful to me, a sinner” (Lk 18:13) will put us in harmony with the first. And also, the second.
Willful sin carries this danger—
it keeps one from praying.