Thoughts on Prayer

Pray without ceasing (I Thessalonians 5:17)

Sadly, I have to admit there was a time in my life when I didn't think it was necessary to pray about anything, let alone without ceasing. I believed that since God is in charge, and He will take care of me, why pray? Yet the Scriptures are full of commands to pray and ask for our needs and the needs of others. While I was doing a search for the exact reference of this well-known scripture verse, I was amazed at how many references there are to prayer in the New Testament. Prayer is a big deal, and I have come to believe that to be true.

It's all well and good to say we should pray and even better to say, "I believe I should pray." It's another thing to put that into practice. Sometimes I find that prayer flows easily from my heart. Other times, it is not so apparent. Lately, prayer has been a struggle for me, and today I began to ponder why that is the case. Earlier in the day, a problem arose and after I had contemplated it for awhile, the thought came to me that instead of trying to sort it out myself, I should pray. The next thought, however, was "I don't want to pray about that" and so I, to my own detriment, I went on until another situation arose, and I thought about praying. Again, came that voice, but this time the words were more clear, "I don't need to pray about that." I then realized the real problem is not that I didn't want to pray. The truth is I didn't think I needed to pray. To put it bluntly, I didn't think I needed God's help.

The cure for this pride, of course, is repentance. Sometimes, the only way I can find repentance for this heinous sin is to tell God the truth about my condition and ask for grace to change. And what is the truth? The truth is that I (we all) can not even take a breath without Him. He is my (our) very life, and prayer reminds me (us) of our deep need of God. So I preach to myself as I share with you--pray without ceasing.