Day 14: How to Pray Continuously

Scripture
…pray without ceasing…

1 Thessalonians 5:17

Devotion
Pray without ceasing? How can anyone pray without stopping? How could I pray without taking a break? This seems like an impossible command to obey in Scripture. And, to make it even more challenging, it is sandwiched between the commands to rejoice all of the time and give thanks in every circumstance.

Why? Paul gives the reason: happiness, prayer, and thanksgiving are always God’s will—no matter our circumstances in life. I’m sure I have your attention now. “What?!,” you’re thinking. “How could I ever do God’s will then?” And that’s an excellent question. Lets look at that more closely.

First, prayer is speaking to God, but it’s more than that. Prayer is being connected to God in a close relationship. We are commanded then to be in an unbroken relationship with God. What does this mean? We can strive to live always with an attitude of prayer.

Second, prayer does include speaking to God with words at times. We cannot continually speak to God with words in an unbroken manner due to sleep and other tasks that prevent us from doing so. But what we can do is pray frequently. We can pray publicly and privately. We can pray out loud and silently. We can pray longer prayers and shorter prayers. We can confess, thank, and ask in prayer. We can pray in the morning, pray before meals, and pray before bed. In other words, we can pray so often it seems almost like it is unceasing, unbroken, and continuous.

Finally, Scripture speaks of many things that God desires but may not be perfectly experienced by us until the new heavens and new earth. For example, God will wipe away tears, sadness, pain, sin, and our spiritual enemy—we know that is God’s will (see Revelation 21). But this won’t be experienced fully until the second coming of Jesus (1 Thess. 4:17). We also know that even though we are followers of Jesus, we still battle sin until we either die or Jesus comes back (Romans 7:15-25). So, we won’t perfectly live this out right now. We won’t perfectly pray without ceasing. But thankfully, Jesus did for us and teaches us how to do it as well.

Application
What ways do you sense God leading you into a life that is filled with prayer? Think of one way you can strive to maintain an attitude of prayer. Here are some examples (if it’s helpful!): pray a few times a day, pray in the car, pray in the morning when you wake up and in the evening before bed, or maybe it’s not necessarily something to add into your life—perhaps instead you may just want to be more aware of God throughout your day (at work, at home, parenting, doing chores, etc.).

Prayer
Father, we see clearly that it is your desire that we pray without ceasing. Help us to not view this command as a burden but a blessing. Help us to see this as your desire to connect with us and satisfy us with your joy (Ps. 16). Help us to want more of you and more of the gift of joy that you give! Please make us more aware of your presence throughout the day, and please forgive us for living segmented lives which only acknowledge you at certain times and on certain days. Thank you for your grace! In Jesus’ powerful name, Amen.