Pray Without Ceasing

Talk to a Christian and most of them will tell you that you need to pray more. Take  a walk through a Christian bookstore and you'll realize that there is a flood of books written about prayer - subject range from fasting prayer to meditative breathing prayers. Prayer books are everywhere. Why is that? It’s probably because most Christians do not pray enough. And perhaps that is true, but these books do something to us that, perhaps, was not intentional by the authors. These books intentionally or unintentionally, make Christians think they do not pray enough. Again, this may be true but I also notice people pray for 15 minutes and beat themselves up for not praying for an hour a day! Or even longer!

I remember taking about 300 teenagers to a summer retreat where the theme centered around prayer. And at the end of the last worship service, the speaker challenged these students, who rarely prayed, to commit to two hour prayer a day! What? Really? Why do we get this sense that prayer should consist of lengthy conversation with God? I mean how long is a satisfactory time to spend time talking to God? How long does He want us to talk to Him? When we read the Bible, prayers don’t seem to be all that long!

When we talk about the length of prayer, we tend to go straight to 1 Thessalonians 5:17, which says ‘pray without ceasing’ or as the New Living Translation says ‘Never stop praying.’

Wait a minute! Never stop? You mean never ever stop praying? How do we do that? Don’t we need to sleep? I mean if you were to get a major surgery, don’t you want the doctor to pray at home and concentrate on the surgery rather than praying? Does that mean I have to join a group so we can pray every day, for 24 hours a day?

I get the sense that for most Christians, it doesn’t matter how much they pray, it’s simply not enough. How did intimacy with God, talking to God, become such a duty filled, agonizing activity? Is length what God meant by ‘pray without ceasing’?

Let’s take a look at the original word from which we get the phrase ‘never stop’, which we normally associate or interpret the word as never ending prayer - 24/7 prayer!

When Paul wrote to the Thessalonians, he wrote to the followers of Jesus who were ‘obsessed’ with the end times. They were fixated on the idea of the end times; so they neglected to do the things followers of Jesus ought to do. They were not caring for the needy. They were not obeying God’s clear commands. And they were not keeping up on the prayer times.

The Greek word ‘adialeiptos’ [ἀδιαλείπτως] means without a break, without intermission; hence the translation, ‘without ceasing’. But Paul can’t possibly mean we should pray without a break! Paul used this term again in 2 Timothy 1:3 when he prayed for his spiritual son Timothy - “unceasing remembrance of Timothy”. But this does not mean that in every waking moment Paul remembered Timothy! In fact, Jesus did not pray every waking moment. So in light of the context of the book of Thessalonians, we can surmise “without ceasing” to mean, not to take a break from prayer! In other words, don’t skip prayer. Don’t slack off on prayer. Don’t quit your regular practice of prayer! This takes into consideration two necessary categories of prayer: habitual, routine prayer at certain times as well as spontaneous prayer at other times. Often your prayer alertness leads to spontaneous prayer. 

So if you are not praying 10 times a day, relax... don’t fret! You are not expected to. It can be a nice habit to aim for, but first we have to get in the habit of praying once a day. Don’t go running in a triathlon when you can’t even run a 100 meter! And don’t feel guilty for not praying as much as the spiritual giants who prayed for 6-7 hours a day. Start with 15 minutes a day and increase your time as you begin to enjoy your time with the Lord. You can join our Upper Room on Friday nights to pray with your fellow brothers and sisters for an extended time. Get together with your growth group and pray together for that which concerns your heart. Come together five minutes before Sunday service and pray with those around you over our service.  Take a walk while talking to the Lord and making your concerns known to Him. Do some gardening early in the morning as you praise His wonderful provision over your life. Take a break from daily routine and spend some time thanking God for who He is and what He has done! Remember His thoughts over you are wonderful and beautiful. And the Bible says that God's thoughts over you are greater than all the sands in the world. That's a lot of wonderful thoughts from our Divine Father. Thank Him for that. Thank Him for your family, friends and co-workers. Make it a habit. Pray without ceasing!