How Do I Pray Without Ceasing?

00:00:00.000 | Thanks for listening to the Ask Pastor John podcast.

00:00:03.400 | We begin the week with a question from Zach, a listener to the podcast who writes in to

00:00:07.400 | ask about prayer.

00:00:08.520 | "Hello, Pastor John.

00:00:09.520 | Thanks for being such a great resource and answering hard questions in this podcast.

00:00:13.800 | My question for you is this.

00:00:15.800 | In your own words and in your own application, what does it mean to pray without ceasing?"

00:00:22.760 | Well, let's get the text in front of us with a little bit of context, I think, because

00:00:28.760 | that really has significant things to say about the little phrase.

00:00:34.160 | So here's 1 Thessalonians 5, and we'll do maybe verses 15 to 18.

00:00:40.440 | "See that no one repays anyone evil for evil, but always," note that word, "always seek

00:00:50.600 | to do good to one another and to everyone."

00:00:54.880 | Now start here with verse 15, just so that we can see that Paul's burden is not just

00:01:03.920 | a kind of private piety when he comes to speak of prayer.

00:01:08.440 | This is a radical call to counterintuitive, countercultural love.

00:01:15.760 | Don't repay people evil for evil.

00:01:18.240 | Do good to everyone always.

00:01:21.760 | Next verse, "Rejoice always," which is not the kind of emotional response one would ordinarily

00:01:28.720 | have to being mistreated and treating others better than we are treated.

00:01:33.640 | You might be wounded, you might be spurned, you might be in jail if people have treated

00:01:37.720 | you badly.

00:01:38.900 | So this is a really amazing way of life in Paul's mind, a miraculous one, being treated

00:01:45.840 | badly, returning good for evil, and all the while rejoicing always.

00:01:52.200 | Always doing good to those who do bad to you, always rejoicing.

00:01:55.440 | This is incredible.

00:01:57.280 | And then comes the phrase that Zach was asking about, and it makes sense now a little more,

00:02:04.840 | "Pray without ceasing."

00:02:08.600 | If that life sounds hard to you, pray without ceasing.

00:02:13.720 | And then he gives a specific example of the kind of prayer in verse 18.

00:02:19.040 | Not just, "Help, Lord," which of course we would pray, "Help all the time.

00:02:23.000 | I need help to live this way."

00:02:25.080 | But he goes on and says, "Give thanks in all circumstances, for this is the will of God

00:02:33.800 | in Christ Jesus for you."

00:02:35.600 | So let's keep in mind two things about the context.

00:02:40.840 | One is the everys and the alls.

00:02:44.200 | One, do good always to everyone.

00:02:47.880 | Two, rejoice always.

00:02:50.200 | Three, pray always or without ceasing.

00:02:53.880 | Four, give thanks always or in every circumstance.

00:02:58.520 | The other contextual observation is that there seems to be a deepening to the question, "How?"

00:03:05.560 | How to live?

00:03:06.960 | Answer, do good always to everyone.

00:03:10.640 | Even when they don't do good to you.

00:03:12.880 | How?

00:03:13.880 | Rejoice always.

00:03:15.640 | Find your joy in something other than the way you're treated.

00:03:18.480 | How?

00:03:19.480 | Pray without ceasing.

00:03:20.480 | How?

00:03:21.480 | Be in a continual disposition of thankfulness to God.

00:03:26.280 | So in those contexts, what does pray without ceasing then mean?

00:03:32.640 | That's what Zach asked.

00:03:34.160 | And I see at least three things here that it means.

00:03:38.160 | First, it means that there's, I think, a spirit of dependence, a spirit of dependence that

00:03:46.280 | should permeate all we do.

00:03:48.400 | This is the very spirit and essence of prayer, dependence.

00:03:52.560 | So even when we are not speaking consciously, consciously to God, there's a deep abiding

00:04:01.080 | dependence on Him that is woven into the very essence of our faith.

00:04:09.520 | In that sense, we are praying.

00:04:12.860 | We are experiencing a spirit of dependence continuously, and that kind of disposition

00:04:23.120 | is I think right at the heart of what God creates when He creates a Christian.

00:04:28.040 | That's the spirit meaning that it has, and I think this is probably the one that's foremost

00:04:31.680 | in Paul's conscious intention here.

00:04:36.400 | Praying without ceasing means praying repeatedly and often, repeatedly and often.

00:04:42.800 | And I base that on the way he used the word adielaptos, unceasing, in Romans 1.9.

00:04:51.880 | Listen how he uses it here.

00:04:53.340 | So same word without ceasing.

00:04:55.780 | He says, "For God whom I serve in my spirit, in the preaching of the gospel and of His

00:05:02.020 | Son is my witness as to how I, adielaptos, without ceasing, unceasingly, make mention

00:05:09.740 | of you."

00:05:10.980 | Now we can be sure, can't we, that Paul did not make mention of the Romans in every minute

00:05:19.620 | or second of his prayers or his days or his preaching.

00:05:25.660 | He prayed and he spoke about lots of other things besides the Romans, but he mentioned

00:05:32.140 | them over and over.

00:05:34.420 | He mentioned them often.

00:05:35.860 | He mentioned them regularly.

00:05:37.940 | So he says, "I mentioned you without ceasing."

00:05:41.780 | It doesn't mean that he was verbally and mentally always, every second, mentioning

00:05:47.500 | them.

00:05:49.020 | It means that over and over, always, repeatedly, without fail, when I get on my knees, you're

00:05:55.700 | in my prayer.

00:05:57.220 | That's basically what I think he means by without ceasing, repeatedly and often.

00:06:02.500 | And the third thing I think he means is not giving up on prayer.

00:06:09.100 | Without ceasing means don't ever come to a point in your life where you say, "Prayer

00:06:14.940 | doesn't work.

00:06:15.940 | I'm done.

00:06:16.940 | I'm giving up on God.

00:06:17.940 | I'm giving up on prayer.

00:06:18.940 | I'm giving up on God."

00:06:19.940 | That would be the very opposite of without ceasing.

00:06:22.820 | It means don't ever do that.

00:06:25.100 | Don't ever get to that point.

00:06:27.420 | So the key to rejoicing always is to pray continually, that is to lean on God all the

00:06:36.220 | time and call to him repeatedly and often.

00:06:40.980 | Never give up looking to him for help and come to him repeatedly during the day and

00:06:46.820 | come often.

00:06:48.300 | Make the default state of your mind a Godward longing and a Godward thankfulness.

00:06:57.020 | And one last thing maybe it would be helpful to say.

00:07:00.260 | I think it's important to notice that in real life, some discipline in regular times of

00:07:09.780 | prayer during the day keep this kind of without ceasing prayer alive.

00:07:18.820 | I know a lot of people, I don't know a lot of people, but I've heard enough people say

00:07:24.780 | that they want to pray spontaneously.

00:07:27.220 | They want to be always in a spirit of prayer.

00:07:28.820 | They don't need set times of prayer.

00:07:31.300 | That's legalistic.

00:07:32.300 | I think that's ridiculous.

00:07:34.220 | I think it's unbiblical, and I think it's unrealistic if they just knew themselves,

00:07:40.340 | because it's disciplined regular times of prayer that fit us for the kind of spirit

00:07:48.540 | that enables us to enjoy the hour-by-hour spontaneous walk with God.

00:07:54.500 | And Daniel, good old Daniel in the Old Testament, is a great example of this, because we know

00:08:00.940 | that Daniel in critical crisis moments of his life offered up quick prayers to God,

00:08:08.140 | "Oh God, help me.

00:08:09.340 | I'm being asked something here that I don't have an answer for."

00:08:13.780 | And where did that come from?

00:08:15.660 | Well, Daniel 6.10 says, "Now when Daniel knew that the decree," namely that nobody can pray

00:08:22.780 | except to the king, "When Daniel knew that the document was signed, he entered his house."

00:08:29.780 | Now in his roof chamber, he had windows toward Jerusalem, and he continued kneeling on his

00:08:36.860 | knees three times a day—continued, that was his pattern.

00:08:41.780 | He continued his pattern of disciplined three times a day prayer, praying and giving thanks

00:08:49.060 | before his God as he had been previously doing.

00:08:53.940 | So the point is that Daniel lived a life that combined discipline three times a day with

00:09:01.700 | spontaneous encounters with God, and I think that's the way it should be with us.

00:09:09.020 | If we hope to pray without ceasing day and night in the way Paul calls us to, enjoying

00:09:16.080 | that kind of continual communion with God and that repeated coming to him, we're going

00:09:22.060 | to need to develop disciplined times of prayer as well.

00:09:26.860 | Yeah, yes, we will.

00:09:28.220 | Thank you, Pastor John.

00:09:29.460 | May God grant us all the discipline and faith of Daniel in our prayer lives.

00:09:34.260 | Well, for more details about this podcast or to catch up on past episodes or to subscribe

00:09:39.020 | to the audio feed, even send us a question of your own, go to our online home at DesiringGod.org/AskPastorJohn.

00:09:46.660 | Well Pastor John and I return on Wednesday to hear from a listener who wants to know,

00:09:51.380 | how does the brotherhood of Christ, that Jesus is my brother, how does that reality add weight

00:09:57.560 | to my worship?

00:09:58.560 | I'm your host Tony Renke, we'll see you on Wednesday.

00:10:00.940 | Amen.

00:10:01.440 | Amen.

00:10:02.440 | Amen.

00:10:03.440 | Amen.

00:10:04.440 | Amen.

00:10:05.440 | Amen.

00:10:06.440 | Amen.

00:10:07.440 | Amen.

00:10:08.440 | Amen.

00:10:08.440 | [BLANK_AUDIO]

How Do I Pray Without Ceasing?

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