A group of pastors used to get together once a month and discuss a Biblical question. One month their question was from 1 Thessalonians 5:17: Pray without ceasing. So their question was simply: What does it mean to pray without ceasing? This group of pastors sat down to lunch at a restaurant and they bantered back and forth, arguing and disagreeing about the meaning of this verse. Finally one minister nodded to the waitress who was getting their food. "Why don't we ask her if she knows what this means?" The men didn't see why not, so when the young lady returned, they asked her if she knew what Paul meant when he wrote "Pray without ceasing." "Of course," the young woman returned without skipping a beat. "It's quite simple." The pastors exchanged baffled glances. "When I get dressed in the morning, I ask God to clothe me with righteousness," said the young woman. "When I serve you bread, I ask that Jesus might be my Bread of Life. When I dust the furniture I ask that the filth might be taken out of my heart, and when I set your drink before you, I ask that Jesus might be the Water of Life. I just kind of pray my way through the day like that."
That story, shared by Joel Beeke in a sermon on prayer, is what it means to pray without ceasing. To "just kind of pray your way through the day." Do you pray without ceasing? Are you in constant communication with God all day, pouring out your troubles, sending up confessions, asking for peace, begging for mercy, praying for the salvation of souls, lifting up others' burdens? I know I'm not. And why? Why don't we pray without ceasing? Well there are four main reasons.
- We're "too busy" for prayer. Martin Luther, a great Reformer famous for his prayer life, would spend two hours a day in prayer. One day he said to his young associate, "Phillip, I've got such a busy day tomorrow I'll have to spend an extra hour in prayer!" Don't we do just the opposite? Joel Beeke said in that same sermon on prayer that instead of praying more when we're busy, our prayer life often goes like an accordion, decreasing the busier we get. But that's so sinful! We can't neglect prayer because we have so many other things going on. Do you know what that says about us? It says that our activities that are keeping us so busy are more important than God. We're saying that we'd rather play basketball or go to theatre club or go to ballet class instead of coming before the Mercy Seat. We're using excuses to keep us from approaching the Throne of Grace. I don't know about you, but that cuts me like a knife. Instead of trying to avoid prayer, we should be seeking to partake in it constantly. Which brings me to the next point ...
- We don't want to "bother" God. Have you ever thought that? Have you ever thought, "God has so many other things to deal with. *Sigh* I wouldn't want to bother Him with my petty prayers"? It kind of makes me think of yesterday. My mom was trying to type an e-mail, but I wanted to talk to her. I admit I was a bit on the talkative side (okay, I was a lot on the talkative side). I really wanted to talk to her, so I talked about my day ... and talked about the future ... and talked about my life, until finally she said, "Quelle! Can't you be quiet for just one minute?" We need to be like me in the way that we should always want to talk to God. Yet something important to note is that when Paul writes "Pray without ceasing," that doesn't mean that we shouldn't ever take a time to "be still and know that the Lord is God" (Psalm 46:10) There's a time to pray and a time to be quiet. But we should never be quiet because we think that we are a "bother" to God.