January 11
“Pray without ceasing” I Thessalonians 5:17
In addition to practicing daily, diligent prayer, mentioned yesterday, there is another aspect to prayer that every Christian must learn and practice if they are going to see lasting progress in their spiritual walk, and that is prayer on a continual, ongoing basis as we go about our day. Paul said, “pray without ceasing” in 1 Thessalonians 5:17. Obviously, he was not saying that we should be on our knees praying 24-7. This type of prayer is more like an ongoing fellowship and communion with God, the kind that takes place regularly throughout the day as we go about our business. But it is asking God for things that come to mind and help for every situation we encounter, especially to overcome evil and Christ-dishonoring thoughts that can regularly come into our minds.
This kind of ongoing prayer I am remiss to admit that I am just now learning to practice regularly. For many of my years as a Christian, I would pray in the mornings for things on my list (during times when I was diligent about praying through my list, which was not all the time) and then go charging through the day in my own wisdom and strength, trying to “make things happen” the best I knew how. But that often resulted in being uptight about things, pushing people too hard, getting angry or anxious about even little things, being compulsive and overly concerned about things instead of people, being harsh with others and missing the bigger picture of relationships, and in general not being a very good example of a follower of Christ.
One of the joys I am discovering as I strive to overcome these sins is to go to the Lord throughout the day and ask His help on things, even little things that in the past I would have just done in my own efforts. Now I feel I want and need to ask Him for the diligence to keep working at a difficult task, the grace to not respond in an unkind way, help for the phone call I am dreading, insight to work out a difficult problem, a needed open door and receptive person, progress on long term goals, the ability to use my time well, the wisdom to know what to say to someone to minister to them, love for people when I am treated badly, the discipline to get to bed on time and the ability to sleep well, and many, many other seemingly small minute by minute tasks that I realize now that I need help with.
When I was younger, I didn’t see the need for help on these things, but now I sometimes think I can’t do anything without Him strengthening me. I can easily get discouraged and bogged down with regrets and fears, or I am easily tempted to waste time entertaining myself at the expense of making progress on truly important things and things that will bear fruit for eternity. I am going through a real crisis of inadequacy, and I think God is bringing this about so that I will learn to turn to Him, rely on Him, seek Him every moment of the day and derive my adequacy from Him. But will I respond to Him obediently and truly learn the lessons He is putting before me?
In the past, I never took the time to stop and ask the Lord for help on the little things, the very important minute by minute things, and as a result, I was not only making things much more difficult than they needed to be, and not only was I forgoing the opportunity to have things go much more smoothly, but I think a number of times I sinned in how I behaved and responded. I clearly was not abiding in Christ.
Now I have to pray continually throughout the day. I have to repeatedly stop and ask the Lord for help on the things I am doing. When I feel myself getting anxious or frustrated about something, I have to stop and pray. I am more than ever mindful about my own weaknesses and inabilities. I want God to do it. I have to have God doing it. I don’t want to do it unless He does it and gets the glory. I think this is closer to what Jesus meant when he said to abide in Him.
So this practice and habit of praying without ceasing is an essential skill that is needed to help us be like Jesus and accomplish His will on earth. And it is critical to enable us to avoid sin. All of us must seek to recognize our weaknesses and need, even in the seemingly small things of everyday life, and we must all learn to “pray without ceasing.”
Tomorrow we will review the three types of prayer discussed thus far and see how they fit together in our efforts to live the victorious Christian life and overcome temptation.