Pray without ceasing
2020 is upon us and people all around the world are celebrating and considering their next steps. Some make resolutions and desire change or growth. Others pray for better lives or the lives of loved ones and friends. The new year is a perfect time to pray without ceasing and enact change in our lives and all over the world.
I am not a perfect person, but I have the ear of our Creator. So, do you.
It is deeply moving to know we can talk to God. Humbling to know that we have an open line of communication.
It does not matter who we are or what we have done, God wants a relationship.
We can know God on an intimate level when we pray without ceasing.
Knowing this makes me feel less alone in times of trouble, because when we talk to someone on a regular basis, we get to know them.
Our thoughts will run to something they said and we will begin to understand who they are. Talking is a way to know someone on a deeper level. With that understanding then, it should make sense that we need to talk with God to know him.
28 Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. 29 Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”
To pray without ceasing is both personal and a two way conversation.
The basics:
Relationships take two participants.
Part of a healthy relationship is conversation.
Prayer and response is a conversation between you and God.
It is a back and forth communication between God and the one doing the praying. Ranging from formal recitation of scripture to outright sobbing, prayers take many forms. Some prayer is in the head at the supermarket; other prayer is a war cry against evil.
Stillness, songs, whispered questions, or a day on my knees asking for help, there are all types of prayer.
It is clear God desires our communication.
How do I know that? Woven throughout the Bible are the words of God and he tells us to first pray without ceasing (I Thess. 5:17).
He also assures us that what we ask according to his will ( I John 5:14 and 15) will be done in God’s timing
and everything will then be worked for good (Romans 8:28).
Even what we don’t understand or seems awful will be used for something good somehow. Sometimes we don’t see it right away. Maybe years may go by before we can look back and see how God took something terrible that happened and brought something good out of it.
God’s ways are not our ways (Isaiah 55:8). With that thought however, I do not mean that God causes awful things to happen, but with prayer he takes the hard and makes something good.
The best prayers are those we actually pray.
Open your mouth or your heart and speak to God. Be thankful, ask for help for yourself or a friend. Just converse while you walk or clean, work or make dinner.
The amazing thing is that God doesn’t expect perfect people or a perfected prayer.
When a prayer is a Godly desire, comes from a humble place, is thankful, rightminded, or loving, we can expect his response, so pray without ceasing.
His response may not be what we expect, but we will get one.
Pray with humility and thankfulness. Intercede and advocate for someone who needs it. Have a conversation with God.
for more on prayer: Prayer is simple even when the problem isn’t.
Barefoot and writing,
Kim
To pray without ceasing creates a two way conversation.
14 This is the confidence which we have before Him, that, if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. 15 And if we know that He hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests which we have asked from Him.…
8“For My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways My ways,” declares the LORD.
28And we know that God works all things together for the good of those who love Him, who are called according to His purpose.
So shall my word be that goes out from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it.
For more on this subject “pray without ceasing” try this article from crosswalk.com
how to pray without ceasing and the meaning of I Thesalonians 5:17
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