We are wrapping up 40 days of blogging about prayer. I thought it was today, but I re-counted and it is actually tomorrow. I think it'd be good to touch on the verse in I Thessalonians 5 that says. "pray without ceasing."
Now, we've been talking about prayer and all kinds of topics about prayer. Part of the challenge was to help establish a consistent habit of daily, along, meaningful prayer with God.
However, this verse is taking things to a whole new level.
Think about it. Would we be worrying about habits and times and things like that if we were trying to actively practice this verse? Nope.
Pray without ceasing. I will admit that I don't fully understand the concept of this. I'm not pretending to either. I simply know that if I consciously work to strive for this then the rest will fall into place. If I am trying to remember God in every moment of my day and to actively communicate with him then I am bound to be more filled with Spirit. Then I am bound to be more patient, kind, and gracious to people around me. I won't have to remember to praise God for who He is because I'll be thinking about it regularly throughout my days. Then I will feel genuine guilt (not self-assessed shame) for my sin and for relationship issues I have with loved ones. Then I will think about who to pray for in my life and keep them in prayer more consistently. Then I would more consistently get into the Bible because I'd want to know more about God to know better how to pray to Him and praise Him.
So, for all our talk about habits and consistency, if I (we) could just get one thing down...it would be "Pray without ceasing." If I could have one thing I was working daily to improve, it would be to pray without ceasing.
To God be the glory.
Now, we've been talking about prayer and all kinds of topics about prayer. Part of the challenge was to help establish a consistent habit of daily, along, meaningful prayer with God.
However, this verse is taking things to a whole new level.
Think about it. Would we be worrying about habits and times and things like that if we were trying to actively practice this verse? Nope.
Pray without ceasing. I will admit that I don't fully understand the concept of this. I'm not pretending to either. I simply know that if I consciously work to strive for this then the rest will fall into place. If I am trying to remember God in every moment of my day and to actively communicate with him then I am bound to be more filled with Spirit. Then I am bound to be more patient, kind, and gracious to people around me. I won't have to remember to praise God for who He is because I'll be thinking about it regularly throughout my days. Then I will feel genuine guilt (not self-assessed shame) for my sin and for relationship issues I have with loved ones. Then I will think about who to pray for in my life and keep them in prayer more consistently. Then I would more consistently get into the Bible because I'd want to know more about God to know better how to pray to Him and praise Him.
So, for all our talk about habits and consistency, if I (we) could just get one thing down...it would be "Pray without ceasing." If I could have one thing I was working daily to improve, it would be to pray without ceasing.
To God be the glory.
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