In Paul’s letter to the Thessalonians, the apostle gives the members of the church instruction concerning their lives as children of the light. One particular command is “Pray without ceasing.”
What does this mean? How can we do this? The Bible also commands, “6 days shalt thou labor and do all thy work…” How can we work or play and still continually pray?
Did you pray while you drove to school this morning? It says “without ceasing.” That’s what it means right? Not ceasing, not stopping. Why must we pray without ceasing? Prayer is the chief part of all thankfulness. It is conversation with God. Talking to Him.
When we pray, we often ask God for guidance dealing with family problems, accidents, trials, and temptations. We ask Him for this and that, but is that the only time we pray to Him? When we need something? If this is the case all we are doing is making Him our servant.
Praying without ceasing does not mean that we always have to have our heads bowed and hands folded. Instead it means we must live consciously in the knowledge that God is with us and is always watching over us in everything that happens in our lives. We can pray to God whenever we are driving, sitting in a class, or at any other point in the day.
Another way that we pray to our Father is through the Psalms and hymns that we sing. When we sing of or listen to praises of His majesty we are praying to Him. Praising Him in song is praying to Him. If we are listening to the music of this world we are in no way praising Him or giving any glory to Him.
When we are with our family or friends it can be considered “awkward silence” when we are not having conversation with them. Is this the way it is with our God too? He is continually with us, our Father in Heaven, our Elder Brother, who is closer to us than our families. We should never have “awkward silence” with Him. We should always be talking to Him. We should constantly talk to Him whether we consider things to be going well or whether we consider them to be going bad.
Psalter number 203 reminds us that our conversation and communion with God is sweet when we seek His face, and also that living apart from Him is death. We are strengthened in our walk when we continually have conversation with God by praying without ceasing.
Kelly Lubbers and Collin Van Overloop
Young Calvinists 