Pray Without Ceasing

Pray Without Ceasing

Pray without ceasing.

I Thessalonians 5:17

We come again today to one of the very practical imperatives of the New Testament. In Luke 18, Christ spoke a parable to the purpose that, ‘men ought always to pray and not to faint,’ (or lose heart). We have perhaps, often heard people take this verse and make much of it by emphasizing our duty to obey the commands of the New Testament. While this is an intrinsically true statement, we ought not consider it apart from the Person of Christ. There is no true prayer apart from Christ. It is Christ Who has redeemed us and secured our access to the Father. It is Christ Who has taught us to pray. It is Christ, Who has shown us what it means to, ‘pray without ceasing,’ by the example of His Life.’ It is Christ Who ‘ever lives to make intercession for us.’ So that we can, indeed, ‘pray without ceasing’, knowing that God will hear us at any and all hours for the sake of Christ. It is the Holy Spirit Who is ‘renewing us in the whole person, after the Image of God,’ that is making us more like Christ, and thereby causing us to desire to, ‘pray without ceasing.’ All these things taken together lead us to a happy, joyful participation in prayer which elevates it above mere servile duty. If we may, because of Christ, have an unending, perpetual audience with the God of Glory, will we not find it most delightful to ‘pray without ceasing?’

Our Gracious God and Our Loving Heavenly Father,
we come before You with great delight.
It satisfies our souls to know that you receive us in all hours of the night,
therefore with joy we ‘pray without ceasing.’

Tomm Tice
Where the Bush is Burning