Pray without ceasing
Turn with me in your Bibles to 1 Thess 5. This morning we bring our series on prayer to a close. We have defined prayer as conversation with God and the purpose of this series has been to make suggestions for making the most of those conversations. We suggested to make prayer relational, authentic and heartfelt, just be real before God. We suggested that asking of God is certainly a component of prayer but shouldn’t comprise the totality of our prayers but that they should be more than just God give me prayers. We examined the prayer of Daniel and noted some other components of prayer that would be healthy to add to asking, such as confession, praise and thanksgiving. Last week we examined Jesus’ teaching on prayer and suggested that prayer should be modeled after the way a child humbly approaches his father.
· My heavenly father can do anything. I’ll ask him! Expectantly.
· If I really want something, I will plead persistently with my heavenly father.
· When I ask, my heavenly father won’t ignore me but will answer me, even if it’s not the answer I expect, like, or want. God answers prayer.
· My heavenly father can say no because he’s God and he’s running the show not me.
· My heavenly father loves me and whatever His answer is it is ultimately for my good and His glory.
This morning we will venture into Paul Silas & Timothy’s letter to the Thessalonians where we will draw our final suggestion for prayer. 1 Thess 5:16-18 16 Be joyful always; 17 pray continually; 18 give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus. Paul encouraged the Thessalonians in verse 17 to pray continually. Your translation may say pray without ceasing. The idea here is to live a lifestyle of prayer. Pray all the time. Be in constant conversation with God. Have conversations with God throughout the day.
When I consider my relationships with the people closest to me, I am essentially in conversation with them throughout the day. If I’m at work, I may TEXT a friend. I don’t have a lot of time, but I just want to let them know I’m thinking about them, or I just want to say hey. I’ll shoot a text. If I’m on lunch break and I have 30 minutes, I may give them a PHONE CALL and have a longer, deeper conversation. If I don’t have something to say to them, but want to see what’s going on in their world and hear from them and see their perspective, I may hop on FACEBOOK and see what they’ve posted.
I’d like to draw a parallel between these ways in which we continually communicate with other people and continual prayer.
Throughout our busy days we may just be thinking about God, thinking about His work in the world and in our lives. We may be at work or school or doing household chores and it may not be the best time for a long conversation, but we would like to just let God know we love Him, appreciate Him, thank Him, praise Him. Much like taking a moment to shoot a TEXT MESSAGE to a friend, we might offer up a short prayer of thanksgiving or praise to Him in the midst of our daily task.
We may have a larger chunk of time when we are free to have a longer conversation. Perhaps it’s during a lunch break or driving to work. Maybe it’s first thing in the morning before the business of the day is underway. Maybe it’s before bed, after the business has slowed down. Maybe it’s during a workout or some other task that doesn’t require all of our focus and our mind is afforded the freedom to multitask. In those times, much like giving a friend a PHONE CALL, we my spend 15 – 20 – 30 minutes in prayer, having a longer in depth conversation with our heavenly Father.
We may have some time on our hands but don’t necessarily have a whole lot to say to God, but we would love to hear from Him. We would love to find out what’s going on in His mind and learn more about Him, what makes Him tick, what is important to Him. In those times, much like hopping on FACEBOOK and checking the recent posts of a friend, we might open the Bible and check God’s status. We will find that our heavenly Father
· Hates injustice
· Owns the cattle on a thousand hills (ssssss)
· Is the giver of every good and perfect gift (James 1:17)
· Cares for his children and that they should cast all anxiety on Him (1 Pet 5:7)
· His word will never fail (Luke 1:37)
· He desires mercy, not sacrifice (sssss)
In the same way that we are in constant communication with our friends and family through text, phone calls and facebook, let us be in constant communication with our heavenly father by short prayers, long prayers, reading His word. Let’s live a life of prayer; let’s pray continually, without ceasing. Let’s fill our days with conversation with God.
HOW CAN WE MAKE THIS A REALITY? I’m not foolish enough to think that just because we have been talking about prayer for over a month that we will be moved to a life of continual prayer. So, what will move us to do this? Probably a combination of several things, but I’d like to point out 3:
1. recognizing the POWER of prayer
2. buying into Jesus’ words of PERSISTENCE in prayer
3. cultivating a view that PRAYER IS PRIVILEGE.
The fist thing that will cultivate in us a life of continual prayer is a recognition of the POWER of prayer. James 5:13-16 13 Is any one of you in trouble? He should pray. Is anyone happy? Let him sing songs of praise. 14 Is any one of you sick? He should call the elders of the church to pray over him and anoint him with oil in the name of the Lord. (James seems to have the same view of prayer as Paul. James seems to also encourage continual prayer – to pray without ceasing. In trouble, pray. Happy, praise God. Sick, pray. Pray, pray, pray continually.) 15 And the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well; the Lord will raise him up. If he has sinned, he will be forgiven. 16 Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective.
James encourages a life of continual prayer because he is convinced that there is power in prayer. When we aren’t just hopelessly casting words into the air wondering if they will be heard but we truly believe that there is power in prayer, it will move us to pray. That will move us to pray continually.
POWER tools. When Bre and I first got married I didn’t own a single tool. Our first Christmas together, I was given by her dad a set of basic tools with wrenches and screwdrivers. For several years I screwed and unscrewed screws with screwdrivers and elbow grease. But a while back I bought this. This is my power drill. I am convinced of its power.
When I need to screw or unscrew a screw, I don’t reach for the screwdriver, but my power drill. I use it continually. I never look at it and say, I just don’t know if it has the power to screw this screw in; maybe I’ll use this screwdriver. I am convinced of its power, so I turn to it continually. When I need to screw or unscrew, I turn first to my power drill. It’s not a last resort or an afterthought. My lifestyle is no longer characterized by the screwdriver; I now have a lifestyle of using the power drill.
When we are convinced of the power of prayer, we won’t say I don’t know if prayer will work for this. I’m not sure if there is enough power in prayer to help this situation. We will say, there is power in prayer. Prayer will not be a last resort or an afterthought. We will turn to God in prayer as a first response. There is power in prayer; thus, I will pray. I will make prayer a lifestyle. I will pray continually.
There is power in prayer.
MEL’S SIGN Not long ago, I was driving down Austin Ave and passed Mel’s, the bowling alley. The sign said “pray for rain.” So I did. I prayed, “God, give us rain.” A brief request that I didn’t think much of; in fact it was somewhat careless. A couple days later I was on my way to work, and by the time I got to Inner Loop it had started raining. I thought, “great.” Then by the time I was going 55 mph down Inner Loop it was coming down hard, pelting me in the face. And rain hitting you in the face feels like somebody is throwing darts at your face. As I’m driving along I’m thinking, “This is lame. This is lame. This is lame.” Then it hit me. “Oh yeah! This is what I asked God for. This is what I asked God for.” There is power in prayer. And if that is the power of the flippant and somewhat careless prayer imagine the power of intentional, continual persistent prayer.
There is power in prayer. When we buy into the power of prayer, we won’t treat prayer like a screwdriver left upon the shelf due to its lack of power, we will treat it like the power drill and use it continually!
Further I believe that we will make continual prayer a lifestyle when we buy into Jesus’ encouragement to be PERSISTENT in prayer.
Last week we looked at the parable of the persistent widow in Luke 18. We get the impression from the text that the widow came to the judge continually. She came over and over and over until he granted her request. If we pattern our requests after Jesus’ teachings on persistence, we will find ourselves coming to Him with requests continually, over and over and over. Note how the pattern of persistence alone creates a life of continual prayer.
There was a time in our marriage that Breann and I were going through some tough times. There were things in her that I didn’t like, that I discussed with her that just wouldn’t change. I thought there was no hope. These things will never change. So I went to the man who was discipling me at the time. He challenged me to pray for her. He gave me a specific challenge: 30 times. And for accountability, 30 tick marks in my discipleship journal. 30 times. Could be 3 times a day for 10 days, once a day for 30 days, 30 times in one day. Bottom line, 30 times. So I did. I offered up to God the fragrant offering of my prayers on behalf of my wife. God, change Breann’s heart. Change her priorities. Guess what happened. You’ll never guess. Radical change. It wasn’t over night. But change happened. Within a matter of time, everything that I asked God to change in Breann He changed.
I was persistent. I prayed continually. There was something driving my persistence. There was a need that I had, a concern, a desire. I knew there was power in prayer, but I had been neglecting it. But when I was challenged to persistently pray for her, I did. That changed my prayer life. It started with my petition. I was praying without ceasing because of the need, but that turned into a holy habit of praying continually, not only to petition God on behalf of Bre, but also to confess sin, praise Him, thank Him and most importantly, just to talk with Him.
When we buy into Jesus’ teaching on persistence, and then pray with persistence, we will be praying continually since persistence almost implies praying continually. Pray. Then, in persistence, pray again. Then persistently, pray some more. Pray and pray and pray. Pray continually.
Finally, when we remember that prayer is a great PRIVILEGE, we will pray continually.
When I first got saved it dawned on me that prayer is a privilege. It hit me that when praying, I was actually speaking with Jehovah, the creator of all things, the one true God, the God of the Bible, the Sovereign one. I did it all the time. Over time, I began to take that privilege for granted and lost sight of that amazing reality. As a result I found myself praying less often and without awe.
This happens with people. One day, when I was in 6th grade, I met Jay Strickland. No, you don’t understand. I met Jay Strickland. We talked. I talked with Jay Strickland. Who’s that? Only the most popular guy in our school. Everyone knows him. Everyone thinks he’s cool. All the guys want to be him. All the girls want to be with him. One day I was in my front yard and I saw him across the street. Eventually found out it was his mom’s boyfriend’s house. He’s coming. He’s crossing the street…is he coming to talk to me? I don’t know what to say to this guy…I mean it’s Jay Strickland. I didn’t have anything to offer him. He was so high above me. I’m just David Boone. Could I really even relate to him or he to me? We lived in different worlds. How could he stoop so low as to converse with me, to take an interest in me? What would we talk about? Wouldn’t it be awkward?
Either way, I was like a 6 year old at Christmas because I was so excited that Jay Strickland was talking to me. Then he acknowledged me at school. WOW. Jay was acknowledging me and talking to me; what a great privilege! What an honor. Eventually we carried on lengthy conversations. We spent more and more time together. We spent the night at each other’s houses and got to know each other. We spoke about mutual interests and things that concerned us, things on our hearts, shared experiences. Eventually it wasn’t as big of a deal to speak with Jay. I began to take it for granted. I no longer thought, I’m talking with Jay Strickland!!! It was just yeah, I’m hanging with my boy Jay. I lost sight of who Jay was originally in my eyes and I lost that enthusiasm and awe that I once had for him and our relationship.
That was a good thing with Jay, since he was just another human being, but it wasn’t a good thing with God. Much like I did with Jay, I went from being excited and enthusiastic about conversing with God and amazed that I’m actually talking with Him to eventually, yeah…I’m talking with God. Big deal. It IS A BIG DEAL! I believe there is a connection: when we go from I’m talking with GOD!!! This is a BIG DEAL to yeah big deal…we will also go from praying continually to you know maybe praying every now and then because I mean it’s not really a big deal.
Prayer is a great privilege and when we remember that, I believe it will move us to live a life of constant conversation with God.
Consider the joy of finding a friend who can understand you, who knows you so well, that they could almost predict your thoughts and words? How wonderful to engage in relational conversation with somebody like this! That is what we have AND MORE in the privilege of prayer: relational conversation with the Almighty God who is not simply another human who knows you extremely well and could almost predict your words with probability, He is the one who fashioned you, numbered the hairs of your head, knit you together in your mother’s womb. Prayer is the privilege of having a conversation with the one who knows you better than you know yourself.
We don’t usually pass up privileges. By definition a privilege is advantageous and pleasurable. And when we remember what a privilege it is to commune with God through prayer, we will take advantage. We will do it and I believe we will do it more often. www.ncfgeorgetown.com Church in Georgetown, Texas. Reformed church Georgetown, Texas preterist church Georgetown Texas. Pastor David Boone. Full Preterism. Covenant Eschatology. New Covenant Fellowship Georgetown. Page House 10:00 am Loving God. Loving Others. Realized eschatology fulfilled eschatology Preterist church Austin Texas. Bible church Austin Texas Second coming of Jesus Christ
DON’T BE DISCOURAGED. I don’t want you to leave a message like this and think “I don’t pray enough. Woe is me.” This is not meant to bring condemnation. But if you do feel convicted, don’t get down on yourself, but let that move you to make an effort to strengthen your relationship with God through prayer.
Let’s cultivate a lifestyle of prayer. We can do it anytime, anywhere. We can pray while driving the car, jogging, at the supermarket, before bed & meals. Aloud, in the quiet of your heart. Again, I don’t believe that we will cultivate this lifestyle simply by me encouraging it in a sermon. I believe that a life of continual prayer will result from us being convinced that there is power in prayer, being persistent in prayer, and remembering that prayer is indeed a great privilege. After all, prayer is conversation with GOD!
Our sermon audio and video files can be found at www.ncfgeorgetown.com/media.html
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