1 Thessalonians 5:17 - Ceaseless Prayer

"Pray without ceasing." (KJV)

Chances are you've heard this said before. There have been numerous sermons on this verse, numerous books, numerous other blog posts and more. The reason is that this verse is telling us how to live. In three words, Paul lays the foundation for the ideal Christian lifestyle. The reason that I decided to do a post on this, even though there are so many other blog posts that have covered it, is because I recently had a revelation about how important prayer is, and I hope to help the rest of you understand how important it is to pray.

Pray without ceasing. This can be easily misinterpreted as "spend every second of the day praying." This however, would result in you not doing anything else. No speaking with people, no eating, no sleeping, etc. Clearly this isn't what God wants us to do. Praying without ceasing isn't an action, it's a lifestyle. Prayer, at its most basic form, is talking to God, it is the way we communicate with God. Unfortunately, we as humans often neglect doing this in our daily lives, we find ourselves busy doing numerous things each day and we end up forgetting to spend time with God. What Paul is saying in this verse is that we should make prayer the centre of our lifestyle. We should never forget to pray, we should never forget to talk to God. Prayer doesn't need to be a ceremony that we only do in a certain area at a certain time, you can pray to God while doing your work, you can pray to God while driving somewhere, you can talk to God wherever you are and whenever you want.

The reason that prayer is so important, is because we need to have a strong relationship with God. You wouldn't ever develop a friendship with someone if you never spoke to them, or if you only came to them in moments of crisis. The same is true with God, if you want a friendship with him, you need to talk to him, not just when you want something or when you are in a crisis. God wants to hear about your day, he loves it when you tell him about your day, from the most mundane things to the most exciting things.

One of the amazing things about the Bible is that verses can have multiple meanings and all those meanings can be true, so I want to now look at another understanding of this verse because I believe it will help you.

If there is someone you've been praying for, never go a day without praying for them. If you are praying for a situation, never go a day without praying for it. If there is anything specific you are praying for, never neglect to pray about it. Jesus said that if you pray consistently and relentlessly then your prayers will be answered (Luke 18:1-8). Throughout the Bible, there are numerous examples of people who prayed constantly for something, and they always received an answer. Now be aware, sometimes that answer is no, but they still received their answer.

To further illustrate the importance of consistent prayer, imagine that you are in command of an army in a war zone. Everyday you make sure that your soldiers are ready for battle, and everyday you make sure that your base is sufficiently guarded. Whenever the enemy forces come against you, your forces hold them back and slowly advance towards their goal. Now imagine that one day, you tell all your troops to have the day off, they all go to sleep. When the enemy forces come they find an undefended base and they rampage through, destroying everything that you've worked towards. When you go out the next day, you find your base on fire, your troops beaten, and your enemy victorious. This is an image of prayer that God has shown me. We can pray everyday and yet we feel like there is no progress, but that is because you don't win a war in a day, you have to keep fighting each and everyday until you finally emerge victorious. Yet, if you neglect to pray, even for a day, the damage that can be done is massive, the enemy can destroy all your hard work in a single moment if you let him. Remember, we are at war, but our battlefield is not physical, but spiritual (Ephesians 6:12).

So don't neglect to pray, don't allow a day to go by without praying to God. If you need a victory, keep praying for it until you receive it. Never fail to talk to God, for if you don't talk to him, how can you expect your relationship with him to grow. I leave you with another verse which I feel perfectly shows why we should pray without ceasing: "...seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you." (Matthew 6:33)

Prayer

Lord Jesus, prayer is one of the most important things that we are able to do, yet we often neglect it. We ask that you help us to consistently pray and that you give us a revelation of the power of prayer in our lives. Just as a commander never neglects his duty, help us to never neglect our duty of prayer. Amen.