<p>2:8&nbsp;<i>I therefore desire that the men pray everywhere, lifting up holy hands</i><i>- </i>I suggested on 2:1 that Paul has called upon the Lord Jesus to pray for all men, to enable the Father's will to save all men to be progressed and achieved.&nbsp; Now he asks the &quot;men&quot; who were part of the &quot;all men&quot; to be saved- to themselves pray. The subject of the prayer is clearly the progression of the plan to save &quot;all men&quot;.</p><p>Having reminded us that there is &ldquo;one Mediator between God and men, the Man Christ Jesus; who gave Himself a ransom for all&rdquo;, Paul drives home the practical result of understanding Christ&rsquo;s work: &ldquo;<i>Therefore </i>I desire that the men pray everywhere... without wrath and doubting&rdquo; (1 Tim. 2:5-8). &ldquo;For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathise with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are- yet was without sin. Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need&rdquo; (Heb. 4:15,16 NIV). Really appreciating that Christ is our personal High Priest to offer our prayers powerfully to God, should inspire us to regularly pray in faith.</p><p><i>Without anger- </i>Perhaps the warning is to not pray like Jonah did, angry that Gentiles and &quot;all men&quot; could be saved. In this case the words of prayer would have been said with an agenda, not to God but designed more for the hearing of men or as a duty which the heart was not in. This is an easy pitfall in prayer- to pray to oneself as did the Pharisee (Lk. 18:11), or to pray with attention to how our human hearers will receive the words. To begin prayer with &ldquo;Our Father&rdquo; and a few thoughts on the God to whom our words are being directed is surely wise advice from the Lord. We can pray with an impure heart; and yet the very practice of prayer can make us think we are somehow spiritually acceptable before God. Thus Paul had to warn that prayer should be made &ldquo;without wrath and doubting&rdquo;. He knew that a man can pray to God with an angry heart, thinking the act of prayer cancels out his anger.</p><p><i>And dispute- </i>Or, &ldquo;argument&rdquo;. This connects back to Paul's warning to Timothy not to allow himself or others to get obsessed with endless questions and disputes about interpretation, &quot;which only produce arguments&quot; (1:4). One problem with all that argument and inter-personal tension arising therefrom is that prayer is hindered, especially intense prayer for the salvation of &quot;all men&quot;.</p>