Pray: Without Ceasing - 1st Thessalonians 5:17


 Natalie was a talkative child.  I had many conversations with teachers over the years.  There was a teacher that once told me that Natalie was the only person that they knew that could talk on the inhale and exhale, seemingly to be able to talk without ceasing.  Have you ever had a conversation with someone who will just not stop talking?  Maybe they’ve said something that you want to respond to, only they won’t even seem to stop long enough to take a breath so that you can interrupt and say something.   Maybe they go on and on so long that our mind drifts to other things…like what’s for lunch, what’s for dinner, what’re we going to watch tonight, what’s that crawling up the wall…we’ve completely zoned out, and when they finally stop, they look at us with a puzzled expression, leaving us to realize that there was a question asked somewhere along the line of our time thinking about everything but what they were saying, and now they’re finally waiting on our answer.  Oops.  We all know someone who talks that much.  They may be in our family.    They may be us.  These kind of folks offer an almost visible concept of what it means to carry on a conversation “without ceasing.”

This morning we begin an August sermon series on “prayer.”  Throughout this month we will examine various aspects of how God calls us to pray.  In our very short Scripture reading this morning, Paul instructs the Thessalonians to “pray without ceasing.”  If we understand that prayer is a conversation with God, does this mean that Paul is calling us to drop everything else we are doing and for 24/7 we are to be in conversation with God, constantly talking to God, on the inhale and exhale, praying non-stop?  If that is the case, then how are we to work, how are we to eat, how are we to sleep, how are we to do anything other than kneel at the altar rail or at our bedsides and lift up to God all the things that are on our minds?

If we think this is what Paul meant by “pray without ceasing,” then I think we’ve completely missed the point of what Paul was saying, and in a way, what prayer is all about.

If we think prayer is simply lifting before God a laundry list of things we want to see Him do in the world—whether it is to bring us rain, except on the day of our music festival, and then bring more rain; or have Him heal our children, parents, aunts, uncles, friends, neighbors, and everyone else of whatever illness or injury they have; or have Him persuade the leaders of our country to bring about how we think the government should be run; or have Him bring peace to the Middle East, Ukraine, Africa, and everywhere else violence seems to be rampaging; or even the more outrageous things such as asking Him to influence the final score of a ballgame, find us a parking place close to the entrance of the store, or help us resist eating all of that box of Hot Fresh Krispy Kreme donuts we’ve just bought—the we totally have missed the point of prayer.  Is there anything wrong with asking God to be involved in those things—well no, except for maybe the sporting event, praying after we’ve bought the donuts, and wanting the government shaped to our will and design and not His.  We can bring before God our petitions, there is nothing wrong with that—in fact Scripture sets before us the example of that and invites us to do that. 

Prayer, though, is not simply our talking to God.  It is a conversation with God…it involves not only speaking to God, but listening to Him speak to us.  Does that mean that we will hear God’s voice as clearly as we speak ours?  It’s possible.  The Scriptures reveal to us folks that literally heard God’s voice speaking to them.  We’ve all encountered someone who heard a voice speaking to them that they attributed to God.  Yet God also speaks to us in the reading of Scripture.  He speaks to us in the voice of our brothers and sisters in Christ.  He speaks to us in the silence of our hearts.  We simply have to stop talking long enough to simply listen.  It is about giving God time, through prayer, to shape us and direct us.

In fact, if we look to the prayer that Jesus taught His disciples when they asked for instruction on praying—we see that only a small percentage of that prayer is about petitioning God—and a larger portion is about the prayer shaping us:

Our Father—reminds us that we are called to be part of a community of faith that is not about us, but about God.

Who art in Heaven—reminds us that we are the creature, and God is the Creator.

Hallowed be Thy Name—reminds us that what we do, say, and think should bring honor and glory to God’s Name.

Thy Kingdom Come, Thy Will Be Done—reminds us that it is not about what we want, but surrendering our will to what God desires.

On Earth as it is in Heaven—reminds us that we are not supposed to be waiting for God’s Kingdom, but actively living in such a way that the world sees it now.

Give us this day our daily bread—Here we ask God to meet our needs, but also it reminds us that We are to be satisfied with what God provides—like the daily manna God provided in the wilderness for those fleeing Egypt.

Forgive us our trespasses/debts/sins—Confessing that we are sinners in need of God’s grace.

As we forgive those who trespass/debt/sin against us—remembering that we cannot ask of God anything we are not willing to offer to those who have wronged us.

Lead us not into temptation—If we don’t want God to lead us into temptation, we are reminded that we shouldn’t take ourselves there as well.

But deliver us from evil—asking God to not only protect us from evil, but cleanse us from the evil within ourselves.

Prayer is about listening and being shaped by God more so than it is trying to get God to do what we want.

What does this have to do with “praying without ceasing.”  It means being in a constant attitude of prayer.  If prayer is about letting God transform us, then to “pray without ceasing” would indicate that we are in a constant state of communion with God, opening ourselves up to Him—letting God know our desires, but seeking His will in all things.  It means that rather simply being aware of God and listening for God simply on Sunday mornings, at mealtimes, and at bedtime…that we are constantly aware of God’s presence in our lives and His love for us.

You know, some of the toughest directives of Paul come right before and right after his direction of “pray without ceasing.”  Paul says, “See that none of you repays evil for evil, but always seek to do good to one another and to all.”  In other words, make sure you don’t even think about getting even when someone wrongs you—Paul is talking about “turning the other cheek,” “doing good to those who persecute you,” “loving your enemy”—those hard words of Jesus.

Paul continues on, “Rejoice always…give thanks in all circumstances.”  We can’t believe that.  We look around the world and in our own lives and see struggle and pain.  We see sickness and hurt.  We see evil run rampant as innocents are killed and the weak are taken advantage of.  We may be the ones struggling and in pain, we may be the ones sick, or we may be the ones battling evil or being taken advantage of…and we’re suppose to rejoice, even as this is going on?  We’re supposed to give thanks while it is happening to us?  You’ve got to be kidding, right?

However, at the core, at the center of all of this is where we see Paul say, “pray without ceasing.” 

That is the key.

If we strive to be in constant communion with God…with a constant awareness that God is with us, that He sees and cares for us…that He hears our cries…and if we listen for Him to comfort, direct, and lead us…it will shape every aspect of our lives.

If we are constantly aware of God’s presence in our lives, it will shape our actions.  It will change who we are and how we live Sunday afternoon through Saturday night.  It mill move us from self-seeking actions to acts of generosity.  It will move us from rudeness and arrogance to acts of hospitality.  It will move us from turning a blind eye to those in need to responding with acts of compassion.  It will move us from acts that dishonor, disrespect, or ignore God to acts that glorify His Name.

“Praying without ceasing” will also shape our attitudes.  If we are desiring God’s forgiveness and realize that we must forgive in order to be forgiven—then it will leave us realizing that we can’t walk around with a chip on our shoulder or refuse to talk to someone and think we’re still good with God.  It will start to shape our immediate responses so that rather than respond with road rage, wondering “what was that (fill in the blank) thinking,” we are the ones backing off to let someone merge, for we remember that “Vengeance is [God’s]” and that we are to “If it is possible, so far as it depends on [us], live peaceably with all.”[i]   

It will mean that if we are in constant conversation with the One who will have the final word in our lives, that we don’t walk around fearful of what might happen to us or what someone or something might do to us, but that we walk around confident that we are loved by the One who has granted us Eternal Life with Himself, and that nothing “in all creation will be able to separate us from [His love] in Christ Jesus our Lord.”[ii]

 It means we don’t walk around depress or thinking there is no Hope, because we are in a relationship with the God who raised Jesus from the dead and “we know that the one who raised the Lord Jesus will raise us also…So we do not lose heart…For this slight momentary affliction is preparing us for an eternal weight of glory beyond all measure.”[iii]

 It moves us from jealousy or resentment of what we do not have, to the realization of just how much God has blessed us with and that if we even have a box of crackers in our cabinet, our cup of provisions overflows, for we know that “God will fully satisfy every need of [ours] according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus.”[iv]

Pray without ceasing…being in constant communion with God—being aware of His presence with us wherever we may be…listening for His voice as we bare before Him our complete being…may we allow this ongoing prayer life to shape both our attitudes and actions…

In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.


[i] Romans 12:18-19
[ii] Romans 8:39
[iii] 2nd Corinthians 4:14-16
[iv] Philippians 4:19

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