Pray without Ceasing

Luke, a gospel writer recorded: "Then He (Jesus) spoke a parable to them, that man always ought to pray and not lose heart" (Luke 18:1, NKJV, emphasis added).

Paul said, "Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, in everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you" (1 Thess. 5:16 - 18, emphasis added).

Other versions of the Bible say, "pray continually" (NIV) and "keep on praying" (NLT).

To pray without ceasing is the will of God for all Bible-believing Christians. The above Verses of Scripture also imply that if a believer in Christ does not pray without ceasing, he is not walking in the will of God!

Paul also said, "Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, ...." (Eph. 6:18, emphasis added).

Paul also said, "We give thanks to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, praying always for you" (Col. 1:3, emphasis added).

All these terms, "praying always", "pray without ceasing", "Pray continually" and "keep on praying" came from the mouth of Jesus and Paul with the highest authority. Therefore, I believe, the Holy Spirit is endeavoring to teach us that prayer is the most important exercise in a Christian's experience. The Holy Spirit wants us to believe that prayer is the most powerful weapon, the most priceless treasure, the greatest ministry in heaven and on earth, and best of all, prayer, with its potential, is available to us all.

Christians can learn how pray without ceasing, for otherwise why would Jesus and Paul wanted us to pray without ceasing? Why would they want believers to do something which they are not able to do?

The meaning of "Pray without ceasing"

Now, what does it mean to "pray without ceasing" or to "pray continually"?

Does it mean to give up our jobs, leave the responsibility of our families to others, and to go and live in a cave hign in the mountain, away from all people and all civilizations? Does it mean we should become fanatics in the the eyes of non-Christians? And, instead of doing our work properly, pleasing our bosses, and satisfying the needs of our families, freak out in front of them with our apparent supper-spirituality? The answer to all these questions is of couse "No".

By studying the prayer life of many Bible characters, and to see how the Scripture describe their walk with God, we can learn something of "pray without ceasing".

The psalmist said, "In the day of my trouble I sought the Lord; my hand was stretched out in the night without ceasing; my soul refused to be comforted" (Ps. 77:2, emphasis added).

David, the psalmist said, "I will bless the Lord at all times; His praise shall contnually be in my mouth" (Ps. 34:1, emphasis added).

Psalmist Solomon said, "Prayer also will be made for Him continually, and daily He shall be praised" (Ps. 72:15, emphasis added).


The apostles said, "But we will give ourselves continually to prayer and to the ministry of the word" (Acts 6:4, emphasis added).


The writer of Hebrews said, "Therefore by Him let us continually offer the sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of our lips, giving thanks to His name" (Heb. 13:15, emphasis added).


Paul said, "For God is my witness, whom I serve with my spirit in the gospel of His Son, that without ceasing I make mention of you always in my prayers" (Romans 1:9, emphasis added).


Paul said, "I thank God, whom I serve with a pure conscience, as my fore-fathers did, as without ceasing I remember you in my prayers night and day" (2 Tim. 1:3, emphasis added).


By studying the prayer life of other great men of God like Moses, Samuel, Elijah and Daniel we will not fail to realize that they had learned the art of praying without ceasing that comes by praying habitually. And we have been able to see mighty accomplishments through their prayers. We, as Christians, too, can do the same and accomplish much through praying habitually.


To pray habitually


From morning until night, hour by hour, minute by minute, the Christians's heart should be so close to the heart of God that that he can learn the art of praying habitually.


Like every other art, prayer needs preparation and preparation and practice for effectiveness. Before you can pray habitually, first, however, you must believe in the importance of prayer; you must believe in the privilege of prayer; you must believe in the purpose of prayer; and you must believe in the power of prayer. We have discussed some of these benefits of prayer in some of my other messages. Therefore we shall just mention some of these benefits here.


The privilege of prayer


James said, "Draw near to God and He will draw near to you" (James 4:8, NKJV).


What a glorious condescension of God's part! What an exiting invitation from God Himself. What a privilege to be children of God! When the children of Israel stood before Mt. Sinai, they were told to stay back, to keep from God's presence lest they should die. But here, through the blood of Jesus Christ, we are brought right up close to our Heavenly Father; so close that we are urged, even implored, to "draw near to God". We can get as close to God as we want. We get close to God through prayer.


When God invites us to come close to Him, He wants us to open our hearts and to commune with Him, to learn more about Him, and to enjoy Him. Then His glory will radiate from us. His abundance of power will flow through us, and His blessed presence will keep us at all times in perfect peace. Then by standing on His many promises we will see how bountifully He provides for us. All of heaven and earth are ours because we are in Him and we are His. We must believe in the privelege of prayer, because that is the only way for any of us to draw near to Him.


The purpose and importance of prayer


Prayer is not only communion with God but is also a part of the Christians's growing process. The Word of God is our spiritual nourishment. The method by which we make use of this nourishment is to pray habitually. You can tell who are the praying Christians because they look like it, and they act like it. They love prayer! We eat (habitually) to produce a strong healthy body. In the same way, spiritually, prayer uses the the Word of God to change us into Christians with strong characters, effective in faith and victorious in service.


Our physical growth is a process "without ceasing"; it never stops, even though age will catch us up. Similarly, our spiritual growth is a "growth without ceasing". The true Christian is continually growing. How? By praying and studying the Word of God without ceasing!


There is nothing you and I will ever do that is as important as prayer. We need to cultivate the desire to pray. When we call upon the Name of the Lord, we will see great changes.


David, the psalmist said, "The poor man cried out, and the Lord heard him, and saved him out of all his troubles" (Ps. 34:6).


The psalmist said, "Then they cried out to the Lord in their trouble, and He saved them out of their distresses" (Ps. 107:19).


Read also Ps. 40:2, 3. You can find many more similar passeges in the Book of Psalms.


The power of prayer


All the power seen in nature, from the first day of creation until now, cannot be compared to the power cantained in one sentence of prayer offered by a penitent soul before the Throne of Grace.


In the parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector (Luke 18:9 - 14), Jesus told us about a tax collector who, under deep conviction of his guilt and wrong, went to the temple to seek cleansing and forgiveness. How many years it had taken for the wretched sinner to reach this state Jesus did not say, but we soon learn how long it took for him to receive a brand new heart from God. It took just long enough (only few seconds) to pray this - "God, be merciful to me a sinner!" A lifetime of sin is gone and forgiven and a whole man made righteous and holy in a instant!


Jesus said, "I tell you, this man went down to his house justified" (Verse 14).


That is the power of prayer! Moses used the power of prayer. He used the power of prayer to move the children of Israel out of Pharaoh's slavery, and He used the power of prayer to get them into the Promised Land. Israel was backslidden; Moses' brother had failed him, his leaders had defied him, his sister had dispised him. But Moses prayed on! Moses knew the power of prayer, and he knew the art of praying without ceasing.


Samuel knew and used the power of prayer. He prayed until wicked king Saul was deposed from his throne by God's declaration, and the shepherd boy, David, was promoted into Saul's place. Samuel wanted either his total conversion or his total collapse; he wanted the right man on the throne of Israel, and he put him there through the power of prayer. Sameil knew the art of praying without ceacing.


Elijah used the power of prayer when he prayed to hold back the rain from Israel for three and one-half years. Prayer made wicked Ahab tremble and brought down fire from heaven to consume a water-soak sacrifice. Yet Elijah was not a spiritual giant nor was him a person with special spiritual gifts. But he was a man with "a nature like ours" (James 5:17). What made him different is, he knew the art of praying without ceasing.


Daniel used the power of prayer. In my opinion, next to our Lord Jesus, Daniel may be recognized as the most powerful praying person in the Bible. Daniel prayed in order to obtain what seemed to be absolutely impossible thing. He received the revelation of Nebuchadnezzar's strange dreams (Daniel 2:1 - 45; 4:20 - 27), he stopped the mouths of roaring lions after being thrown into a pit alongside them (Daniel 6:16 - 23). Daniel did these things, and many more, by the power of prayer. He had learned the art of praying without ceasing. He knelt three times a day!


It is beyond the scope of this message to give more examples. But we must not forget to mention our Lord Jesus, the Master and Teacher of prayer. He raised the dead with authoritative prayer. His life was a life of continual prayer. He was up early in the morning to pray, sometimes praying all night, fasting and praying, continually praying. Let us not forget that there were great women of God in the Bible, like Hannah and Esther, who were great in prayer.


The one thing we notice about these prayer warriors is this - they walked with God (like Enoch before them). They wanted to be with God more than they wanted to be with anyone else. God was their reason for being here, living here, working here; and, when the time would come, their reason for going to be with Him forever. Nothing meant more to them than being in the presence of God and always pleasong God, just like Jesus did.


Jesus said, "The Father has not left Me alone, for I always do those things that please Him" (John 8:29, NKJV).


The act of pleasing God, the Father, is a continual act and, therefore, needs the art of praying without ceasing.


A good lesson from the psalmist


David, the psalmist said, "Evening and morning and at noon I will pray, and cry aloud and He shall hear my voice. He has redeemed my soul in peace from the battle that was against me, for there were many against me" (Ps 55:17, 18).


For David, his battle was physical but for us it can be spiritual. The important thing is, what time we pray is not important, but it is important to learn that we can pray at any time. If we have started the day with God in prayer, we can walk with Him all through the day. We can talk to Him as we walk with Him. We can pray audibly or we can pray with the inner woice of the heart (our spirit). God enjoys them. Any time is prayer time:


The psalmist said, "He who keeps you will not slumber, Behold, He who keeps Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep" (Ps. 121:3, 4, NKJV).


The day and the night are the same with God, so that as we may want to, and as we need to, we can talk to God in prayer. He hears us anytime and He delights in hearing our prayer offered up to Him without ceasing!