All tagged Unceasing Prayer
As people of varying degrees of spirituality we have different prayer habits. Some of us come to God many times a day, some come only in the morning, others in the evening, and there are those who only pray on days like Christmas and Easter, but rest assured we all find time to pray when we are in need, or hurting. So which is right? Well, there is no wrong prayer, but scripture tells us to pray without ceasing, because God loves us and desires us to be with Him just as He is with us... always.
Last night a message popped up on my phone, and the husband of a couple that Ann and I hold very dear was asking for prayer. He had just taken his wife to the hospital with the symptoms of a heart attack or stroke. I read the text message aloud to Ann, and then we began to pray together for her, and them. Have you ever been tested by such events in your life, and how did you react to them? Did your trial cause you to dig deep into your faith, or was your faith and prayer just a side note, or perhaps an afterthought?
Has your life been impacted in some way by the Coronavirus epidemic, or the attempts being made by governments to combat it? Perhaps you are watching as it is making life hard for someone you love, know, or are aquatinted with. Regardless of whether it strikes close to home, or is far away, we can’t escape the feeling it leaves us with. When we are in trouble, hurting, afflicted, or watching the suffering in someone dear to us, we are tempted to separate ourselves, and then, as the silence of God continues, a sense of helplessness, and loneliness sets in. As Christians we are never alone; nor without help, even when our prayers are met with silence God is with us always... this is our promise, and our firm belief.
Praising God is something we can’t do often enough. It is different from giving thanks, which acknowledges Him for providing, healing, or in general, doing specific things for us. “Holy Praise” serves to extol the character, and virtue, of God. We are acknowledging His divinity, loving nature, goodness, kindness, mercy, grace, and every virtue we have come to know as being who He is. Our first words should be to thank God each morning for our new day, but our very next breath should be filled with words of “Holy Praise!” By virtue of our praise we are telling God that He is great... and we are small. This is our sacrifice of self as we acknowledge Him as our Lord.
We pray for others, sometimes for their salvation, but also in their other needs. Has anyone ever asked that you pray for them, or have you volunteered to do so only to walk away and never offer the first word in prayer? Perhaps you simply forgot, maybe you were too busy, or just maybe you said yes to the request just to placate them, and never intended to pray. Did you realize that this is not Christlike, and can even be sinful?
Are you able to pray without becoming distracted? When you seek God is it in earnest, or when you are worshiping at church are you intermingling you’re desire to be in his presence with what is happening in the pews around you? If we do not fix our attention on God, or Jesus Christ it is so easy for our thoughts to be carried away from our spiritual desires, and taken back into the world. Are you ready to give full attention to your faith during worship, prayer, and your relationship with God?
Did we accept Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior, and then retreat into the privacy of our prayer closet where we remain dormant in our faith? Maybe we visit with Him once or twice during the day, and then turn back to the world. Are we embarrassed to take Him where we go each day, or is it that we are ashamed to let others see that we say we love Him, but remain unchanged? The proof of our faith isn’t in what we say, but how we walk.
Who have you prayed for today? Have you left your prayer closet after having prayed in the spirit for your personal needs, the needs of your family, and maybe a close friend or two? Well if so, that was a good start, but it is only the beginning of our daily prayers. In fact, we should consciously pray for all the saints, and all day long in every circumstance, for every soul in need, and as our conscious prayers fade, we should recognize our unconscious prayers as well.