Developing A Heart Of Ceaseless Prayer

Pray continually.
1 Thessalonians 5:17

Continual prayer in a nonstop world—that’s your assignment. It’s hard enough to “pray continually” while kneeling! But how do you “pray continually” while driving? Eating?

Paul was concerned with more than the posture of prayer. He knew as well that the attitude of prayer was all-important. And there’s plenty of challenge in developing a heart for continual prayer, as Alexander Maclaren explains.

WALK WITH ALEXANDER MACLAREN
“Can I pray continually? Not if prayer means only words of supplication and petition. But if prayer also means a mental attitude of devotion and a subconscious reference to God in all that we do, unceasing prayer is possible.

“Do not let us blunt the edge of this commandment by discussing whether the ideal of unbroken communion with God is possible in this life. At all events it is possible for us to approximate that ideal more closely than we have ever done.

“If we are trying to keep our hearts in contact with God in the midst of daily duty, and if during the press of our work we cast a thought towards him and a prayer, then joy and hope and patience will come to us in a degree that we do not know much about yet, but might have known all about long, long ago.”

WALK CLOSER TO GOD
The effectiveness of prayer does not rest on the volume of words spoken or the time spent. Consider these examples of to-the-point prayers:

Peter: “Lord, save me!” (Matthew 14:30).

The tax collector: “God, have mercy on me, a sinner” (Luke 18:13).

Nehemiah: “Then I prayed to the God of heaven, and I answered the king …” (Nehemiah 2:4-5).

Short. To the point. Fervent. Offered with the attitude of going to God in every situation, of keeping the lines of communication open, of having fellowship with the one who is your very life. Such is the privilege to excite the heart of every believer!