Pray Without Ceasing

Where does our time go? Are we trying to fit so much into our everyday lives that we’ve no time for God? Are we so busy dealing with our own problems that prayer gets pushed aside for ‘more important’ matters? Maybe we think that’s OK, because He’s there if we need Him. We may think that as long as we live a clean and honest life, we know He’s watching over us, and we are confident He’ll lead us forward. That is until there’s a crisis, an emergency, or some complication that we hadn’t thought of. We may be in such a hurry to get things done, to get somewhere, or to do all the things we have to do, that we find there’s not enough time to spend with God.

Did Jesus rush around to get things done on time? Did He hurry to Lazarus’ side when He heard His friend was ill? The Bible gives us the impression that Jesus was in no hurry. Everything was in His own time, or in the Father’s timing. In the midst of the storm, He stood up and calmed the sea. He personified peace, saying, “Peace, be still.”

We’re told not to be anxious about anything (Philippians 4:6). Is this not easier said than done? Don’t wait until there’s a crisis. ‘In every situation, by prayer and petition ... present your requests to God.’ We need to make contact. ‘Pray continually’ (I Thessalonians 5:17). But if we’re so busy with the day-to-day issues of our lives, and can’t find the time to spend with God, how can we pray continually? There just isn’t time!

Let’s pause for a moment to consider. We’re not being urged to pray at all times and not able to get on with our lives. God understands. But He wants us to share our lives with Him. He wants us to take Him with us in all situations, so that He can lead us and protect us. ‘For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God’ (Colossians 3:3). He lives in us as we live in Him.

Just before He died, Jesus prayed to the Father, “I have made You known to them ... in order that the love You have for me may be in them, and that I myself may be in them” (John 17:26).

As Christians, we can now share our life with Jesus. We are ‘as one’ before God. We have to get used to the fact that He is with us every moment of the day, because He lives within us by His Spirit. As God is in Christ, so He is in us. Whatever we do, and wherever we are, He’s with us. As we recognise this unique relationship, we can now live ‘as one’ with Him. He shares our every thought, and is with us in every action. Jesus said, “I in them as You are in me” (John 17:23).

As we live this out in our lives, we can share everything we are and do with God continually, and so ‘pray without ceasing.’