How Can We Pray Continually
Without Ceasing?
“And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the saints.” - Ephesians 6:18
“Pray continually.” -1 Thessalonians 5:17
Pray Continually Without Ceasing
- Keeping an attitude of thanksgiving and total dependence upon God as we go about our everyday life.
- Turning our thoughts to God in the midst of doing all things as we have to do.
- Lifestyle of prayer:
Misconceptions:
Stop thinking of prayer as an event. Check your concept of prayer. We think prayer means:
- We should sit and set apart a particular time to pray.
- We should pray loudly.
- We need to get up in the middle of the night or early morning to pray.
- We make rules for our prayer life.
- We should be in a room without doing anything.
If you can do these, good. But the reality is that there is no absolute rule about prayer with respect to time, posture, place, sound, and so on.
Internal activity:
Start to see prayer as a way of life. It should be an internal activity that undergirds every activity that we do. It should be a spontaneous activity without ceasing.
Time:
The biggest lie in our heart is that we do not have time. We are always busy. We think "next to next to next." Our misconception about time prevents us from praying.
Anytime and anywhere:
We can pray anytime and anywhere. It is a lifestyle of prayer.
- When we travel/drive to the office and back home, we can pray.
- When we ride the elevator, just pray in your heart.
- When you go to the restroom, just pray.
- When you are working in your office, just pray in your heart for a few seconds by using two or three sentences like, “Thank you, Lord, for this job. Give me your grace to do my work. Make me a good employee. Make me a light here.” Do it a couple of times in your office.
- When you eat at the table, just pray a sentence like, “God, thank you for this food. Give food to those who have no food.”
- When you dress up, just say, “Thank you for this dress and provision.”
- When you meet your boss or client, just pray before like this: “God, strengthen me to talk, give me your wisdom.”
When you practice this kind of internal prayer throughout the day, your life will transform. You will be able to practice the presence of God and total dependence upon God.
When you practice prayer like this, prayer will not be a one-time event in a day in your life, but it will be a lifestyle and relationship with God. It will be like breathing.
- Offer little acknowledgment to God, make brief or short requests, and offer short thanksgiving.
This kind of short prayer and thanksgiving will become the lifeblood of our spiritual life.
- This kind of short prayer and thanksgiving throughout the day does not underestimate the importance of setting apart a particular time with God daily.
What we speak about is a relationship with God, not legalism.
Praying in the Holy Spirit
Ephesians 6:18
“And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests.”
How can we pray in the Spirit?
Praying in the Spirit means letting the Holy Spirit lead us in what we should pray instead of just praying what we want to pray. It is “prayer of God,” not “our prayer.”
Our prayer:
It is soulish and carnal. It focuses more on material things in major rather than spiritual aspects. Prayer is all about practicing Matthew 6:33 in our prayers where it says, “But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.” “Our prayer” means prayer that gives first priority to material or carnal aspects. Here, most of the time, prayer is a list of complaints, a list of material needs, releasing our anger and other emotions before others, and so on. Our prayers treat God as a dumping ground where we unload all our junk. It focuses on ourselves and our needs. It focuses more on external things. The problem is not presenting our needs to God in prayer, but when material needs take top priority, it becomes a concern.
Praying God’s prayer:
It is a prayer that we pray according to what God wants us to pray. This prayer expresses God’s heart that we received in our minds. It requires waiting upon God. Here we ask God, “Show me, Lord, what I should pray about this person or this particular situation.” When the Holy Spirit leads us in prayer, there will be great freedom and joy in our prayer and lives.
Praying in tongues:
1 Corinthians 14:14
“For if I pray in a tongue, my spirit prays, but my mind is unfruitful.” Praying in the Holy Spirit also means praying in tongues. The Spirit can help us pray directly to God in tongues as He desires about us.
Prayer of the mind:
1 Corinthians 14:15
“So what shall I do? I will pray with my spirit, but I will also pray with my mind; I will sing with my spirit, but I will also sing with my mind.” Here, Paul talks about prayer with our minds. We do not always need to wait for God’s burden or God’s leading to come upon us to pray. We can start right with our prayer from the mind about our needs. Even when we lack God’s leading, we must begin to pray according to the knowledge we have in our minds.
Opposition in Our Prayer
Sometimes, we do not have satisfaction or peace about our prayer. We may feel hindrances in our prayer. When we go well with our prayer, sometimes we may start to feel that our prayer becomes restless, bored, distracted, or weary. In such situations, we need to look at two things:
Devil’s work:
The devil does not like prayer. He wants to steal our prayer life. So he hinders our prayer by bringing guilt consciousness or fear about situations.
God wants to communicate:
Sometimes our prayer becomes difficult because we are wrong somewhere, and God wants us to change. He wants to say something to us.