Thanks for listening to the Ask Pastor John podcast. We begin the week with a question from Zach, a listener to the podcast who writes in to ask about prayer. "Hello, Pastor John. Thanks for being such a great resource and answering hard questions in this podcast. My question for you is this.

In your own words and in your own application, what does it mean to pray without ceasing?" Well, let's get the text in front of us with a little bit of context, I think, because that really has significant things to say about the little phrase. So here's 1 Thessalonians 5, and we'll do maybe verses 15 to 18.

"See that no one repays anyone evil for evil, but always," note that word, "always seek to do good to one another and to everyone." Now start here with verse 15, just so that we can see that Paul's burden is not just a kind of private piety when he comes to speak of prayer.

This is a radical call to counterintuitive, countercultural love. Don't repay people evil for evil. Do good to everyone always. Next verse, "Rejoice always," which is not the kind of emotional response one would ordinarily have to being mistreated and treating others better than we are treated. You might be wounded, you might be spurned, you might be in jail if people have treated you badly.

So this is a really amazing way of life in Paul's mind, a miraculous one, being treated badly, returning good for evil, and all the while rejoicing always. Always doing good to those who do bad to you, always rejoicing. This is incredible. And then comes the phrase that Zach was asking about, and it makes sense now a little more, "Pray without ceasing." If that life sounds hard to you, pray without ceasing.

And then he gives a specific example of the kind of prayer in verse 18. Not just, "Help, Lord," which of course we would pray, "Help all the time. I need help to live this way." But he goes on and says, "Give thanks in all circumstances, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you." So let's keep in mind two things about the context.

One is the everys and the alls. One, do good always to everyone. Two, rejoice always. Three, pray always or without ceasing. Four, give thanks always or in every circumstance. The other contextual observation is that there seems to be a deepening to the question, "How?" How to live? Answer, do good always to everyone.

Even when they don't do good to you. How? Rejoice always. Find your joy in something other than the way you're treated. How? Pray without ceasing. How? Be in a continual disposition of thankfulness to God. So in those contexts, what does pray without ceasing then mean? That's what Zach asked.

And I see at least three things here that it means. First, it means that there's, I think, a spirit of dependence, a spirit of dependence that should permeate all we do. This is the very spirit and essence of prayer, dependence. So even when we are not speaking consciously, consciously to God, there's a deep abiding dependence on Him that is woven into the very essence of our faith.

In that sense, we are praying. We are experiencing a spirit of dependence continuously, and that kind of disposition is I think right at the heart of what God creates when He creates a Christian. That's the spirit meaning that it has, and I think this is probably the one that's foremost in Paul's conscious intention here.

Praying without ceasing means praying repeatedly and often, repeatedly and often. And I base that on the way he used the word adielaptos, unceasing, in Romans 1.9. Listen how he uses it here. So same word without ceasing. He says, "For God whom I serve in my spirit, in the preaching of the gospel and of His Son is my witness as to how I, adielaptos, without ceasing, unceasingly, make mention of you." Now we can be sure, can't we, that Paul did not make mention of the Romans in every minute or second of his prayers or his days or his preaching.

He prayed and he spoke about lots of other things besides the Romans, but he mentioned them over and over. He mentioned them often. He mentioned them regularly. So he says, "I mentioned you without ceasing." It doesn't mean that he was verbally and mentally always, every second, mentioning them. It means that over and over, always, repeatedly, without fail, when I get on my knees, you're in my prayer.

That's basically what I think he means by without ceasing, repeatedly and often. And the third thing I think he means is not giving up on prayer. Without ceasing means don't ever come to a point in your life where you say, "Prayer doesn't work. I'm done. I'm giving up on God.

I'm giving up on prayer. I'm giving up on God." That would be the very opposite of without ceasing. It means don't ever do that. Don't ever get to that point. So the key to rejoicing always is to pray continually, that is to lean on God all the time and call to him repeatedly and often.

Never give up looking to him for help and come to him repeatedly during the day and come often. Make the default state of your mind a Godward longing and a Godward thankfulness. And one last thing maybe it would be helpful to say. I think it's important to notice that in real life, some discipline in regular times of prayer during the day keep this kind of without ceasing prayer alive.

I know a lot of people, I don't know a lot of people, but I've heard enough people say that they want to pray spontaneously. They want to be always in a spirit of prayer. They don't need set times of prayer. That's legalistic. I think that's ridiculous. I think it's unbiblical, and I think it's unrealistic if they just knew themselves, because it's disciplined regular times of prayer that fit us for the kind of spirit that enables us to enjoy the hour-by-hour spontaneous walk with God.

And Daniel, good old Daniel in the Old Testament, is a great example of this, because we know that Daniel in critical crisis moments of his life offered up quick prayers to God, "Oh God, help me. I'm being asked something here that I don't have an answer for." And where did that come from?

Well, Daniel 6.10 says, "Now when Daniel knew that the decree," namely that nobody can pray except to the king, "When Daniel knew that the document was signed, he entered his house." Now in his roof chamber, he had windows toward Jerusalem, and he continued kneeling on his knees three times a day—continued, that was his pattern.

He continued his pattern of disciplined three times a day prayer, praying and giving thanks before his God as he had been previously doing. So the point is that Daniel lived a life that combined discipline three times a day with spontaneous encounters with God, and I think that's the way it should be with us.

If we hope to pray without ceasing day and night in the way Paul calls us to, enjoying that kind of continual communion with God and that repeated coming to him, we're going to need to develop disciplined times of prayer as well. Yeah, yes, we will. Thank you, Pastor John.

May God grant us all the discipline and faith of Daniel in our prayer lives. Well, for more details about this podcast or to catch up on past episodes or to subscribe to the audio feed, even send us a question of your own, go to our online home at DesiringGod.org/AskPastorJohn.

Well Pastor John and I return on Wednesday to hear from a listener who wants to know, how does the brotherhood of Christ, that Jesus is my brother, how does that reality add weight to my worship? I'm your host Tony Renke, we'll see you on Wednesday. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.

Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.