The Prayer App
I love my phone. I don’t think I use it the apps as much as I should though. The ones that get the most use would be “Bible” and “Facebook”. Go figure right? How about that video that we just watched? Do you wish you had the “Prayer” app for your phone? You could just press a button and all the sudden your phone automatically sends your prayer requests to God. Simple, discrete, and most of all, fast.
Why is it that our attitude towards prayer is to hurry up and get it over with? Do you sometimes feel like that? Our time is precious, why spend it “Being still”? The idea of spending a long amount of time in prayer kind of freaks us out. When there is a long prayer at church or the dinner table we are more concerned with not falling asleep or how hungry we are than what is actually being said.
Your generation and mine are getting really caught up in having everything fast aren’t we? We don’t call people because, honestly, it is just faster to send them a text. I think that a lot of that mindset is beginning to slip into our spiritual lives as well. Our quiet times are either extremely short, or nonexistent, our prayer times are even less important at times.
Part of this issue is that the church has missed out on teaching people how to pray, and how to study the Bible. When the culture around us says to do more things more quickly than ever before, we buy into that instead of what the Bible says, “Be still and know I am God”. (Psalm 46:10)
Multitasking or single Focus?
I just heard about a new study on the radio. They say that because of all the access to instant information that is available people are having trouble focusing on one specific task. We are so scatterbrained that we can’t accomplish one project by sitting down, blocking everything out, and getting it done to the best of our ability.
Here is the funny thing about that. I sat down to write this Bible study at 8:45am. It is now 10:19am. Since that time I have sent an email, answered 3 text messages, checked Facebook twice, updated my blog, and set up a few Facebook events for the youth. Yikes. I am part of that group!
What would happen if this Bible study was my time spent with God? Praying…text message. Time out God, gotta get this. Back to praying… man I wonder if so and so posted on my comment last night. Time out God, gotta check. Back to praying… another text message. Well, I guess I can pray without ceasing later…
That would probably be the most ineffective time in prayer that you have ever spent. Do you think that God can work mightily through you if this is the way that you come to Him? Our fast paced, have it now, multiple things at once, attitude MUST take a back seat when we pray. Turn off the music. Get on your knees. Let nothing interrupt your time with God.
Let me ask you this question. Do you get offended when you are talking to someone and they answer their phone while you are in mid sentence? Or worse than that, they actually make a phone call while you are standing there? It’s pretty ridiculous. Think about how God feels if you consider these interruptions as “multitasking opportunities” instead of just straight up rude.
Without Ceasing
Our scripture for this session is 1 Thessalonians 5:16–18, let’s read it together.
16 Rejoice always, 17 pray without ceasing, 18 give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.
Alright, let’s take this verse apart. We know what it means to rejoice always don’t we? Through thick and thin, rejoice that you are in Christ. When things are bad, rejoice that you are in Christ. When things are great, don’t put God in the back seat; rejoice that you are in Christ. Christians always have a reason to be joyful!
Pray without ceasing. Now that is a hard one. Let’s try to understand what Paul is saying about this topic. The Greek word that Paul uses is ἀδιαλείπτως adialeiptōs; adv. from 88; incessantly:—constantly(2), unceasingly(1), without ceasing(1).[1]
What does this mean? Always being in a state of prayer? Being consistent in prayer? Does it mean that we are in sin if we do not forgo eating and sleeping to pray? While there are times when we should put aside important things to pray, we can’t live if we do not eat or sleep.
Matthew Henry puts it this way in his commentary on this passage:
“We should keep up stated times for prayer, and continue instant in prayer. We should pray always, and not faint: pray without weariness, and continue in prayer, till we come to that world where prayer shall be swallowed up in praise. The meaning is not that men should do nothing but pray, but that nothing else we do should hinder prayer in its proper season.”[2]
Paul is talking about our focus in our prayer life. We should not allow things to interrupt our time with God in prayer and we should be relentless in pursuing more time in prayer. We should pray without ceasing.
I have had several experiences where there has been a choice. Spend time with God, or do something else that is under some sort of time constraint. Unfortunately, I have more experiences with pushing God aside during those times, than I do with pushing the seemingly more important things until later.
One particular time was during college. I woke up late and had a midterm in about 40 minutes. I could either get some last minute studying in, or have my quiet time with God. If I studied, I could improve my chances for a better grade, but then I risked pushing God back until I completely forgot about spending time with Him.
I decided that I would use the 40 minutes to read my Bible and pray. When I went down for the test, I was relaxed and confident that God would honor my decision. When I got the test scores back, He had. Instead of trying to study last minute, which may have given me more peace of mind, I showed God more worth by setting aside the less important and staying consistent in my prayer life.
To help with praying without ceasing, we need to understand something about our lives. Do you separate your life into two sections? Secular and religious? This mindset says that your quiet time is religious and that your time at school or work is secular. With this mindset there is a disconnect between your relationship with God and the rest of your life.
What about life outside of jobs or school? How you deal with your finances? If you are not working, how do you use your allowance? How you spend time with friends? Do you talk about what God is doing in your life? Do you pray with each other and for each other?
There shouldn’t be a disconnection between your prayer life and your “normal” life. We should be constant in prayer and the best way to start is to stop looking at your life in segments. Break that mold and start praying at all times. Pray when the opportunity arises. Make opportunities to pray. Pray even when it is unexpected. Pray out loud, pray quietly, pray in public, pray in your heart, just pray.
*Luke 18:1 And he told them a parable to the effect that they ought always to pray and not lose heart.
Jesus told His disciples to pray always and to not lose heart. We are supposed to be a people known by prayer.
“Today I am more convinced than ever that prayer is both the believer’s most powerful and most unused weapon.” – Tom Elliff (Senior Vice President of the International Missions Board)
Do you know the best way to pray without ceasing? To start. Don’t let things get in the way and don’t put God into a box and only pray during your quiet time. But invite Him to be a part of your day. Look for things to pray about during your day. If there isn’t anything, just thank God for being with you.
*1 Th 5:19–22 19 Do not quench the Spirit. 20 Do not despise prophecies, 21 but test everything; hold fast what is good. 22 Abstain from every form of evil.
Do you know what it means to quench the Spirit? It means to squash His power, to take away His effectiveness. I want to end with this thought because it is something we misunderstand. Normally we think that we only quench the Holy Spirit if we are in sin. What about never asking for His power to overcome us? What about never going to God in prayer to ask for strength for the day? We can squander the Holy Spirits power in our lives by simply not allowing Him to be a part of our lives.
Being faithful in prayer is more important than the method that we use to pray, or the words that we say. We need to be a praying people because it is what God has called us to do.
Take time to pray.
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