Without Ceasing

“pray without ceasing,”. ‭‭1 Thessalonians‬ ‭5:17‬ ‭ESV‬‬

I know God has a sense of humor. I underline passages as I journal them so that I have the opportunity to apply more of the word to my life. And also let me know when I should try another version and get a fresh perspective when I am continually coming to a passage that I have journaled. God’s been speaking to me a lot about Prayer lately. I saw the scripture and I knew that I must have journaled it. Well if I have, I forgot to underline it. Pray without ceasing.

It is a big goal, not a suggestion. I can choose to talk to Christ throughout the day or I can grab and complain or just leave him out because I am busy with other things. Or I can choose to invite him in to every area of my life and allow my prayers to be a continual conversation with him. Just as I would talk to anyone else that was with me throughout the day I can talk to God.

I can talk to him and share everything with him. Sometimes it may be a thought, appraise, I request, or even Thanksgiving. So often we think of Prayer as a specific time we set aside to talk to God. We need this prayer closet times of God. We also need corporate times with him, where we join in agreement with others. But for intimacy to occur we need more than one conversation in a day or a group date once a week.

When my husband and I dated, despite the fact that we had very different schedules we talked several times a day. When we had time together whether it was alone or with friends, we were talking. It was a two way conversation. It might not be constant but it was consistent.

After marriage if we chose to only talk 30 minutes a day or less, our marriage would quickly deteriorate. My husband and I have been together 30 years now and we don’t have to say a lot, but we have to connect daily.

Why would it be dear any different with God? Personally I quickly become dissatisfied when I don’t stay in communication with God my frustration increases I need to stay talking with him praying without ceasing.

We are both working from home, so it is easy to take for granted that we are “together” all day. We still take time to share our day, our struggles, and just the little things. My husband came in to my office today to show me the beautiful breakfast sandwich he made. He was excited about it. We talk about what we are watching on television. We talk about the future, the past, the present. Pre-CoVid we had a weekly date night, now we take drives.

God wants to see and hear about our breakfast sandwiches too. He wants us to talk about what we see. He wants us to talk with Him about our past, our present and our future with Him. He wants regular quiet times. He wants us to fellowship with other believers and pray with together in agreement. He doesn’t want to us to take for granted His presence, but to seek Him continually and pray without ceasing.