Pray Without Ceasing

admin July 22, 2020 0 Comments

1 Thessalonians 5:17 KJV

Pray without ceasing.

Prayer can feel mysteriously difficult, boringly perfunctory, and frustratingly out of our control. If you’ve ever struggled with your prayer life, know that you’re in good company, I have been there.

The reason why prayer seems like a struggle is because we have seen it as a matter of religious practice that we must perform rather than a culture or habit that we must develop and grow into. Prayer is more than a discipline, it is a lifestyle — a culture of the kingdom.

Perhaps we need to ask, is there a need for Jesus to pray before he could ask a demon to leave or for a sick to be healed at the point he was encountering one or does he need to pray before he could give appropriate answers at every moment he was questioned? The answer we know is No, because everytime he was recorded praying in the scripture, he was not praying to get something done but was praying into a lifestyle. That is why we never had access to his prayer lists or the pattern of his prayer recorded for us. Whether he needed to sing songs before he prayed or prayed before he sang we never know. Jesus was simply Praying to build is awareness as to what God will have him do at every moment even when he is not praying. Jesus was showing us how to live conscious of praying while not praying.

So, when Paul says “Pray without ceasing”, he is saying stay conscious of praying in the un-seemingly busy times of life, cultivate the habit of praying on the go. The Passion Translation renders the verse this way “Make your life a prayer.” Don’t be religious about it, we must see prayer as part of our life, not necessarily an obligation that we must fulfill but something that is fun to do even while at work.