Victor Font

I used to wonder how anyone could pray without ceasing. I pictured Christians walking around with hands folded, heads bowed, and eyes closed, bumping into everything. While certain postures and specific times set aside for prayer have an important bearing on our communication with God, to “pray at all times” obviously does not mean we are to pray in formal or noticeable ways every waking moment. And it does not mean we are to devote ourselves to reciting ritualistic patterns and forms of prayer.

To “pray without ceasing” basically refers to recurring prayer, not nonstop talking. It is to be our way of life—we’re to be continually in an attitude of prayer.

I think of praying at all times as living in continual God-consciousness, where everything we see and experience becomes a kind of prayer, lived in deep awareness of and surrender to our Heavenly Father. It is something I share with my Best Friend—something I instantly communicate with God. To obey this exhortation means that, when we are tempted, we hold the temptation before God and ask for His help. When we experience something good and beautiful, we immediately thank the Lord for it. When we see evil around us, we ask God to make it right and to allow us to help accomplish that, if it is according to His will. When we meet someone who does not know Christ, we pray for God to draw that person to Himself and to use us to be a faithful witness. When we encounter trouble, we turn to God as our Deliverer.

Fellowship with God

Since the ultimate purpose of our salvation is to glorify God and to bring us into intimate, rich fellowship with Him, failure to seek God in prayer is to deny that purpose. “That which we have seen and heard declare we unto you,” says the Apostle John, “that ye also may have fellowship with us: and truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ.” (1 John 1:3).

Imagine spending an entire workday with your best friend at your side. You would no doubt acknowledge his presence throughout the day by introducing him to your friends or business associates and talking to him about the various activities of the day. But how would your friend feel if you never talked to him or acknowledged his presence? Yet that’s how we treat the Lord when we fail to pray. If we communicated with our friends as infrequently as some of us communicate with the Lord, those friends might soon disappear.

Our fellowship with God is not meant to wait until we are in heaven. God’s greatest desire, and our greatest need, is to be in constant fellowship with Him now, and there is no greater expression or experience of fellowship than prayer.

The Ways and Means of Prayer

In Ephesians 6:18 Paul says we are to pray with “all prayer and supplication.” The Greek word translated “prayer” (also in 1 Thessalonians 5:17: “Pray without ceasing.”) is the most common New Testament word for prayer and refers to general requests. The word translated “supplication” refers to specific prayers. Paul’s use of both words suggests our necessary involvement in all kinds of prayer, every form that is appropriate.

The Posture

To pray all the time necessitates being in various positions because you will never be in the same position all day. In the Bible, people prayed standing:

And he said, O LORD God of my master Abraham, I pray thee, send me good speed this day, and shew kindness unto my master Abraham. Behold, I stand here by the well of water; and the daughters of the men of the city come out to draw water: And let it come to pass, that the damsel to whom I shall say, Let down thy pitcher, I pray thee, that I may drink; and she shall say, Drink, and I will give thy camels drink also: let the same be she that thou hast appointed for thy servant Isaac; and thereby shall I know that thou hast shewed kindness unto my master.—Genesis 24:12–14

Lifting up their hands:

I will therefore that men pray every where, lifting up holy hands, without wrath and doubting.—1 Timothy 2:8

Sitting:

Then all the children of Israel, and all the people, went up, and came unto the house of God, and wept, and sat there before the LORD, and fasted that day until even, and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings before the LORD.—Judges 20:26

Kneeling:

And there came a leper to him, beseeching him, and kneeling down to him, and saying unto him, If thou wilt, thou canst make me clean.—Mark 1:40

Looking upward:

These words spake Jesus, and lifted up his eyes to heaven, and said, Father, the hour is come; glorify thy Son, that thy Son also may glorify thee:—John 17:1

Bowing down:

And Moses made haste, and bowed his head toward the earth, and worshipped.—Exodus 34:8

Placing their heads between their knees:

So Ahab went up to eat and to drink. And Elijah went up to the top of Carmel; and he cast himself down upon the earth, and put his face between his knees,—1 Kings 18:42

Pounding on their breasts:

And the publican, standing afar off, would not lift up so much as his eyes unto heaven, but smote upon his breast, saying, God be merciful to me a sinner.—Luke 18:13

Facing the temple:

Now when Daniel knew that the writing was signed, he went into his house; and his windows being open in his chamber toward Jerusalem, he kneeled upon his knees three times a day, and prayed, and gave thanks before his God, as he did aforetime.—Daniel 6:10

Jesus’ earthly ministry was remarkably brief, barely three years long. Yet in those three years, as must have been true in His earlier life, He spent a great amount of time in prayer. The Gospels report that Jesus habitually rose early in the morning, often before daybreak, to commune with His Father. In the evening He would frequently go to the Mount of Olives or some other quiet spot to pray, usually alone. Prayer was the spiritual air that Jesus breathed every day of His life. He practiced an unending communion between Himself and the Father.

He urged His disciples to do the same. He said:

Watch ye therefore, and pray always, that ye may be accounted worthy to escape all these things that shall come to pass, and to stand before the Son of man.—Luke 21:36

The early church learned that lesson and carried on Christ’s commitment to continual, unceasing prayer. Even before the Day of Pentecost, the 120 disciples gathered in the Upper Room

These all continued with one accord in prayer and supplication, with the women, and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with his brethren.—Acts 1:14

That didn’t change even when 3,000 were added to their number on the Day of Pentecost:

And they continued stedfastly in the apostles’ doctrine and fellowship, and in breaking of bread, and in prayers.—Acts 2:42

When the apostles were led to structure the church so that ministry could be accomplished effectively, they said:

But we will give ourselves continually to prayer, and to the ministry of the word.— Acts 6:4

Throughout his life, the Apostle Paul exemplified this commitment to prayer. Read his epistles and you’ll discover that praying for his fellow believers was his daily practice. To the Roman believers he said:

For God is my witness, whom I serve with my spirit in the gospel of his Son, that without ceasing I make mention of you always in my prayers;—Rom. 1:9–10

Other examples of Paul’s commitment to prayer include:

I thank my God always on your behalf, for the grace of God which is given you by Jesus Christ;—1 Corinthians 1:4

Giving thanks always for all things unto God and the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ;—Ephesians 5:20

Always in every prayer of mine for you all making request with joy,—Philippians 1:4

We give thanks to God and the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, praying always for you,—Colossians 1:3

We give thanks to God always for you all, making mention of you in our prayers;—1 Thessalonians 1:2

We are bound to thank God always for you, brethren, as it is meet, because that your faith groweth exceedingly, and the charity of every one of you all toward each other aboundeth;—2 Thessalonians 1:3

Wherefore also we pray always for you, that our God would count you worthy of this calling, and fulfil all the good pleasure of his goodness, and the work of faith with power:—2 Thessalonians 1:11

I thank my God, making mention of thee always in my prayers,—Philemon 4, (AV)

His prayers for believers often occupied him both “night and day”

Night and day praying exceedingly that we might see your face, and might perfect that which is lacking in your faith?—1 Thessalonians 3:10

I thank God, whom I serve from my forefathers with pure conscience, that without ceasing I have remembrance of thee in my prayers night and day;—2 Timothy 1:3

Because he prayed for them so continually, Paul was able to exhort his readers to pray that way as well. He urged the Thessalonians to:

Pray without ceasing.—1 Thessalonians 5:17

He commanded the Philippians to stop being anxious and instead:

Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God.— Philippians 4:6

He encouraged the Colossians to:

Continue in prayer, and watch in the same with thanksgiving;— Colossians 4:2

Rejoicing in hope; patient in tribulation; continuing instant in prayer;—Romans 12:12

And to help the Ephesians arm themselves to combat the spiritual darkness in the world around them, he said:

Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints;—Ephesians 6:18

Unceasing, continual prayer is essential to the strength of a believer’s relationship to the Lord and his or her ability to function in the world.

My wife and I took our daughter to college for the first time in August 2013. She attends school in Wisconsin, 1,700 miles away from home. It’s the first time we’ve been separated by such a long distance, even residing in different time zones. She is very busy at school. Between classes, studying and work, her life is hectic. Thanks to technology, we do get a chance to Skype occasionally, and when she can she’ll phone us to chat.

Whenever the phone rings and the caller ID says it’s her, we experience a moment of pure elation that we have another opportunity to talk to our little girl. No matter her age, she’ll always be our little girl. If you’re a parent, you know exactly what I’m talking about!

After such a recent call, I started pondering this matter of prayer. I thought about the excitement and joy we feel and how we tend to drop whatever we’re doing to spend precious little time with her. Music and TV is turned off. We walk away from the computers. It’s time to focus on her. It doesn’t matter how busy we are, when she calls, we want to give her our full attention, catch up on each other’s lives, pray with her, and help her in any way we can.

Then it dawned on me. God is our Father, our parent so to speak. The Bible is clear that the ultimate purpose of our salvation is to glorify God and to bring us into intimate, rich fellowship with Him.

“That which we have seen and heard declare we unto you, that ye also may have fellowship with us: and truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ.”—1 John 1:3

If we, as imperfect human parents, can experience such joy when our children reach out to us, how much more so does God, our perfect parent, experience joy when we reach out to Him in with His technology: prayer. Hebrews 4:16 even implies that He’ll also drop everything He’s doing to pay attention to us. Imagine that, the God of all creation excited and focused when we call!

“Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need.”

David Martyn Lloyd-Jones, a Welsh Protestant minister, preacher and medical doctor who was influential in the Reformed wing of the British evangelical movement in the 20th century, once wrote:

Prayer is beyond any question the highest activity of the human soul. Man is at his greatest and highest when upon his knees he comes face to face with God (Studies in the Sermon on the Mount, 2 vols. [Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1979]).

The essence of prayer is simply talking to God as you would to a beloved friend—without pretense or disrespect. Yet it is in that very attitude toward prayer so many believers have trouble.

Because communion with God is so vital and prayer so effective in the fulfillment of God’s plan, the enemy constantly attempts to introduce errors into our understanding of and commitment to prayer.

For many, prayer has been replaced with pragmatic action. Function overrides fellowship with God; busyness crowds out communication. For others, prayer lacks a sense of awe and respect. Their efforts are superficial, disrespectful, and irreverent. Then there are those who believe prayer is designed to make demands and claims on God. They attempt to force Him to do what they believe He should do for them. Finally, for some prayer is nothing more than a routine ritual.

You may hold prayer with the utmost respect, yet you find your own practice lacks purpose and vitality, so you don’t spend time with God like you know you should. While there are many reasons Christians struggle to pray, there is one overriding factor.

Lloyd-Jones writes,

It is the highest activity of the human soul, and therefore it is at the same time the ultimate test of a man’s true spiritual condition. There is nothing that tells the truth about us as Christian people so much as our prayer life.

…Ultimately, therefore, a man discovers the real condition of his spiritual life when he examines himself in private, when he is alone with God.

…And have we not all known what it is to find that, somehow, we have less to say to God when we are alone than when we are in the presence of others? It should not be so; but it often is. So that it is when we have left the realm of activities and outward dealings with other people, and are alone with God, that we really know where we stand in a spiritual sense.

For Christians prayer is like breathing. You don’t have to think to breathe because the atmosphere exerts pressure on your lungs and forces you to breathe. That’s why it is more difficult to hold your breath than it is to breathe. Similarly, when you’re born into the family of God, you enter into a spiritual atmosphere wherein God’s presence and grace exert pressure, or influence, on your life. Prayer is the normal response to that pressure.

Unfortunately many believers hold their spiritual breaths for long periods, thinking brief moments with God are sufficient to allow them to survive. But such restricting of their spiritual intake is caused by sinful desires. The fact is, to be fully functional as a Christian; every believer must continually be in the presence of God, constantly breathing in His truths

Because ours is such a free and prosperous society, it is easier for Christians to feel secure by presuming on instead of depending on God’s grace. Too many believers become satisfied with physical blessings and have little desire for spiritual blessings. Having become so dependent on their physical resources, they feel little need for spiritual resources. When programs, methods, and money produce impressive results, there is an inclination to confuse human success with divine blessing. Christians can actually behave like practical humanists, living as if God were not necessary. When that happens, passionate longing for God and yearning for His help will be missing—along with His empowerment. Because of this great and common danger, Paul urged believers in Eph 6:18

Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints;

And in Col. 4:2

Continue in prayer, and watch in the same with thanksgiving;

Continual, persistent, incessant prayer is an essential part of Christian living and flows out of dependence on God.