This is one of those scriptures that contains few words with a tall order. It seems straight-forward, yet impossible. Yet, I know with Christ, nothing is impossible.
As I began meditating on this scripture, I wanted a picture to see how this impossible task is possible. When I first think of prayer, I think of something like the little girl kneeling to pray. The “Now I lay me down to sleep” prayers or the hands folded at dinner “God is great, God is good, let us thank Him for our food.”
This is certainly a type of prayer, but it just adds to the belief that I can’t pray without ceasing. I have things to do that require the use of my hands. Kneeling is hard on the knees as you get older and heavier. Yet God would not give a command in His word that could not be done.
The picture that came to mind was a teenage girl. I have two daughters, and well was once a teenager myself. Teenage girls know how to talk without ceasing. Get them in a group and they can talk all night. My daughter talked in her sleep too. They wake up talking. There were times I thought “Please take a breath.” and even “Please just shut up for five minutes.” Thank God that he doesn’t have those thoughts!
God wants us to talk with Him about everything. He loves the long conversations, but He also enjoys the silence where our heart connects with His and he can talk back with us. After all, prayer is just communication with God. It doesn’t need to be formal. It doesn’t need to be religious. God knows our hearts, He just wants our prayers. Continuously. This takes discipline as we learn to willingly bring Him into every area of our life.