Pray without ceasing. 1 Thessalonians 5:17
Today’s text does not mean that we as Christians should do nothing but pray. But it does mean that we as Christians should always be ready to pray and should frequently be engaged in prayer. We should never exclude prayer from every one of our daily, and even hourly, activities. Our relationship with our Lord ought to be such that we are in a constant conversation with Him. And we can do that, because He is always with us.
Various religions organizations will have some of their members spending hours at a time reciting and repeating various ‘prayers’ or mantras. Over and over they chant and chatter words that come from their mouths but not from their hearts. That is not prayer; it is just empty ritual and it means nothing to God. As Christians, we need to be careful that our prayer life does not descend into ritual, with us going through the motions without the emotions. But it is good, especially during our longer prayer sessions, to follow a pattern or schedule. For example, when we are praying for those in our Assembly, it is helpful to ‘pray around the circle’ of the Lord’s day seating plan to make sure we don’t forget anyone.
Prayer is our vital link with our Father. As we keep that link open and active, we can enjoy precious fellowship with Him. Why would we not pray without ceasing? -Jim MacIntosh
Here is the link to the video of this message: https://youtu.be/OlzJklfYwBc