Don't be misled by the so-called sinner's prayer so often quoted today. It generates mainly deluded and nominal 'Christians'. The real thing is the prayer provided by Christ. If this is sincerely prayed, the seeker will surely find the Lord.

The apostle urges four forms of prayer for all groups and classes of unbelievers as the vital foundation of all Gospel witness. Here also is the purpose of prayer for rulers, and the degrees of sympathy and desire that undergirds all intercessory prayer.

'The earth is the LORD's, and the fulness thereof; the world, and they that dwell therein. For he hath founded it upon the seas, and established it upon the floods.'

'Brethren, if a man be overtaken in a fault, ye which are spiritual, restore such an one in the spirit of meekness; considering thyself, lest thou also be tempted.'

Paul's directions to Timothy are not only a tremendous challenge to preachers, but they apply to all believers, conveying the seriousness of our mission and the promises of God that sustain us. Here are the measures to keep alive faith and a good conscience.

A sudden burst of praise breaks into Paul's epistle, showing that praise punctuated his life constantly. And such praise! Here he provides our worship agenda for us, virtually defining true worship, and challenging us to bring worthy homage to our King eternal.

'Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.'

'For I through the law am dead to the law, that I might live unto God. I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son…

What Paul meant in calling himself the chief of sinners, and why the Lord showed such mercy to him. His testimony is set as the first of millions that would give gospel light and guard faithful churches from nominalism (or believing without experiencing true conversion).

The moral law was intended to show our need of forgiveness. Believers are not under its power to condemn, but salvation has inscribed its positive virtues in our hearts to be our 'voluntary' aim and longing - the highest mark of grace.