1 Thessalonians 5:17 - Pray Without Ceasing

16 Rejoice always, 17 pray without ceasing, 18 give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.

Target Date: Sunday, 21 May 2023

Word Study/ Translation Notes:

Pray – προσεύχομαι prŏsĕuchŏmai - pray (to God)

Without Ceasing – ἀδιαλείπτως adialĕiptōs - uninterruptedly, unceasingly, without fail

Greek writers used the adverb translated “without ceasing” to describe a hacking cough. Paul did not expect his readers to be in prayer every minute around the clock but to continue to pray frequently.

Now He [Jesus] was telling them a parable to show that at all times they ought to pray and not to lose heart - Luke 18:1

does not mean some sort of nonstop praying. Rather, it implies constantly recurring prayer, growing out of a settled attitude of dependence on God. Whether words are uttered or not, lifting the heart to God while one is occupied with miscellaneous duties is the vital thing. Verbalized prayer will be spontaneous and will punctuate one’s daily schedule as it did Paul’s writings

Thoughts on the Passage:

With all prayer and petition pray at all times in the Spirit, and with this in view, be on the alert with all perseverance and petition for all the saints - Ephesians 6:18

inquire at the house of Judas for a man from Tarsus named Saul, for behold, he [prays] [is praying], - Acts 9:11

What is there to “behold” in the picture of Saul of Tarsus praying if it was his prior habit? This word tells us it was not; the implication is that Saul has BEGUN to pray for the first time. What Ananias had been doing regularly, Saul had just learned at His encounter on the Damascus Road.

Spurgeon - THESE words are the hall-mark of genuine conversion. “Behold, he prayeth” is a surer witness of a man’s conversion than, “Behold, he singeth,” or, “Behold, he readeth the Scripture,” or, “Behold, he preacheth.” These things may be admirably done by men who are not regenerate; but if, in God’s sense of the term, a man really prays, we may know of a surety that he has passed from death unto life. True prayer is a sure evidence of spiritual quickening: the Holy Ghost has put spiritual life into the heart of the man who prays; for prayer is the breath of heavenly life.

It is not the beauty or the eloquence of the prayer that is the important part – it is the genuineness, the realness, of the prayer; it is the faith relationship between the person and God that makes this great testimony.

Matthew Henry - “When God intends great mercy for his people, he first of all sets them a-praying.”

Matthew Henry - We should keep up stated times for prayer, and continue instant in prayer. We should pray always, and not faint: pray without weariness, and continue in prayer, till we come to that world where prayer shall be swallowed up in praise. The meaning is not that men should do nothing but pray, but that nothing else we do should hinder prayer in its proper season. Prayer will help forward and not hinder all other lawful business, and every good work.

rejoicing in hope, persevering in tribulation, devoted to prayer, - Romans 12:12

The word “devoted” is another way of phrasing the exhortation in 1 Thessalonians 5:17. In Romans, Paul is telling us to “strongly and diligently continue in prayer”: to, in result, be people of prayer.

Devote yourselves to prayer, keeping alert in it with an attitude of thanksgiving; 3 praying at the same time for us as well - Colossians 4:2-3

Same exhortation.

Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. – Philippians 4:6

Lightfoot - It is not in the moving of the lips, but in the elevation of the heart to God, that the essence of prayer consists. Thus amidst the commonest duties and recreations of life it is still possible to be engaged in prayer. And in this sense the command to pray without ceasing must receive its noblest and most real fulfilment; for though from a necessary condition of our nature the duty of expressing our aspirations to God in words is laid upon us, yet this is only as a means to an end or as the letter to the spirit. It is in the spirit alone that it is possible to ‘pray without ceasing.

Jesus described the temple as “a house of prayer”, not “house of sacrifice”:

And He began to teach and say to them, “Is it not written, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer for all the nations’? But you have made it a robbers’ den.” – Mark 11:17

Even those I will bring to My holy mountain And make them joyful in My house of prayer. Their burnt offerings and their sacrifices will be acceptable on My altar; For My house will be called a house of prayer for all the peoples.” – Isaiah 56:7

According to Paul, the purpose of the church is that we, God’s people, should grow spiritually so that we increasingly attain to Christlike holiness and maturity

Martyn Lloyd-Jones asks, “Is Christian truth something you like to have, and to know that it is there if you are taken desperately ill, or some loved one is taken ill, or if you are suddenly confronted by the loss of your income, or when some disaster takes place, or when you are on your death bed?”

Private prayers as well as public petitions were frequent in that world where the presence of the gods occupied a significant and fundamental place in the consciousness of the people. But unlike pagan prayers, which sought to influence the gods to have a favorable disposition toward their suppliants,233 Christian prayer began with confidence in a God who was their Father and whose desire was to do them good as his children (Matt. 6:9–13; 7:7–12). This familial relationship, not the manipulation that at times was symbolized by votive offerings in pagan rites, was the foundation stone of Christian prayer.

Paul takes what I believe is a very specific, time-related, event-oriented concern on the Thessalonians’ behalf with regard to the will of God (the recent deaths), and he changes the focus to the overall devotional and covenantal “will” (thelēma) of God “in Messiah Jesus.” Instead of trying to “divine” the future, they should focus on divine virtues and habits: joy, prayer, thanksgiving. These three are closely linked for Paul. A prayerful disposition places God at the center of life and knowing his sovereignty (i.e., that he reigns over all things) and his presence (through the Spirit of Jesus) can and should produce joy and inspire thanksgiving.

Occasions, we must rather say, if we would follow the Apostle’s thought, are never wanting, and will never be wanting, which call for the help of God; therefore, pray without ceasing. It is useless to say that the thing cannot be done before the experiment has been made. There are few works that cannot be accompanied with prayer; there are few indeed that cannot be preceded by prayer; there is none at all that would not profit by prayer. Take the very first work to which you must set your mind and your hand, and you know it will be better done if, as you turn to it, you look up to God and ask His help to do it well and faithfully, as a Christian ought to do it for the Master above.

Applications:

For the Christian:

Don’t stop praying when the answers don’t seem to be coming.

Don’t stop praying when you think God knows everything you need.

Don’t stop praying when things are going easy for you.

Don’t get discouraged because you are not the greatest; begin faithfully where you are.

Sermon Text:

One day, a faithful believer was praying when he received a vision from the Lord: go and lay hands on the great persecutor of the church, Saul of Tarsus, the Pharisee, to remove his blindness.

But that wasn’t the entirety of the message Ananias was given.

Ananias was understandably nervous about the assignment because of the harm Saul had brought to a great many believers.

So the Lord told him this: “Behold, he prays.” (Acts 9:11)

Look now, he prays!

We might read that in many of our latest translations and miss the importance, seeing only the phrase “he is praying”.

Reading it like “right now, he is praying.”

Was it important to Ananias to know what was going on across town?

No. There is no sense of the Lord saying “Hurry and get there before he stops praying” like He was coordinating the timing and Ananias was moving too slowly.

That word “behold” is crucial to the testimony of the Lord about Saul:

The message of the Lord to Ananias was this: Saul has STARTED praying.

He has BEGUN to pray!

For the first time in his life, he is praying.

And he is not stopping.

Notice, in the rest of Ananias’s discussion with the Lord, there are NO OTHER EVIDENCES of Saul’s conversion offered.

The proof of God’s merciful work pouring out of Saul was PRAYER.

In his sermon on this passage in Acts, Charles Spurgeon said this:

“Behold, he prayeth” is a surer witness of a man’s conversion than, “Behold, he singeth,” or, “Behold, he readeth the Scripture,” or, “Behold, he preacheth.” These things may be admirably done by men who are not regenerate; but if, in God’s sense of the term, a man really prays, we may know of a surety that he has passed from death unto life. True prayer is a sure evidence of spiritual quickening: the Holy Ghost has put spiritual life into the heart of the man who prays; for prayer is the breath of heavenly life.

From the first raw cries of the newly-converted sinner to the patient, loving communion of the old saint, godly prayer is the surest indicator of our spiritual state.

Its beauty and power are not in the eloquence of the prayer, or always choosing the right words:

The beauty of a believer’s prayer is in its honesty, faith, and devotion.

When our Lord was with His disciples, it was not the ability to work powerful miracles for which they sought instruction;

They came and asked Jesus Christ to teach them to pray.

Prayer, true prayer, is the conversation of faith.

In this passage in 1 Thessalonians, each of these things is the product of faith:

Joy.

Prayer.

Thanksgiving.

And so he tells us: Pray without ceasing.

But what does it mean to pray without ceasing? Are we to cloister ourselves, cut ourselves off from everyone, stopping all other activity outside of prayer?

Of course not. This command to pray is not the ONLY command we have in Scripture to follow.

So we can be sure that “ceaselessly” doesn’t mean 24/7 time on our knees with our heads bowed.

That we should never say “amen” because our prayers continue unabated.

Let’s take a look this morning at what it does mean.

1. Make prayer your first impulse, not your last resort.

We should live our lives in a constant “state” of prayerfulness.

Moving from one thing to another in our lives does not mean that we stop praying from our hearts.

Too often, people believe that there are “church” things, and there are “real world” things;

That there are sacred things, and there are secular things in the believer’s life.

Praying, singing hymns, reading the Bible equals “church things”.

Working my job, watching TV, playing with my kids, posting to Social Media equals “real-world things”.

Child of God – everything for the believer is a SACRED thing.

Jesus did not just save your “church” self.

Jesus saved your ENTIRE self.

So if there is anything you are doing where you don’t feel like it is appropriate to pray to God in your heart, that activity is probably sinful.

At any moment, while we are engaged in any activity, we should be able to find ourselves in prayer.

Now for those of us who do not multitask well, it doesn’t mean we do everything with our mind divided between what is in front of us and building prayers.

There are times when we REALLY need to concentrate on the activity at hand.

But we can prepare ourselves in prayer for those times, and we can return to prayer afterward.

One last note on this first point: There is no better time for prayer than right now.

If someone asks you to pray for them, certainly make a note of their request for your regular prayer time.

But don’t let the moment pass without lifting their request to the Father NOW.

For many Christians, a prayer list is simply a good intention.

A prayer in the moment, while not removing the obligation to pray later, rarely goes awry.

Even if the person doesn’t directly ask for prayer, if you feel like their need should be brought to the Lord, pray in that moment.

2. Devote yourself to increasing your scheduled time for prayer.

We see many examples in Scripture of regular, scheduled times of prayer.

Time that might appear to some to be wasted time;

Time that is truly valuable.

In almost every letter from Paul, we find that he has a regular time of prayer when he says something like:

making mention of you in our prayers; - 1 Thessalonians 1:2

We see time after time of Jesus going away to a lonely place to pray.

Brothers and sisters, if you do not have a regular, dedicated, protected time of prayer, you are running on fumes.

Your communion with God is strained if the only time you pray are sporadic thoughts and prayers before meals.

In Ephesians 6:18, Paul expands on his instruction when he is dealing with our resources in spiritual warfare – living our life in the power of the Spirit:

With all prayer and petition pray at all times in the Spirit, and with this in view, be on the alert with all perseverance and petition for all the saints

Now the key to this particular time of regular prayer is that you have NOTHING ELSE going on.

It is not the time for your favorite “praise music” to be playing in the background to help the mood.

There is nothing wrong with singing as part of your personal worship, but when it is time for prayer, cut the music.

I have been in churches where the organist felt they must play while the pastor was praying.

Not only was it distracting, I always felt sorry for the organist because they were not participating in prayer.

Do you require music to be playing to be able to talk with your spouse?

Even if you do – not appropriate for this prayer time, since it can distract you from the prayer itself.

Back when I drove to work, I told myself I could spend the commute in prayer, and that would be my prayer time.

First – there is nothing wrong with praying with your eyes open while you are driving.

But this is NOT protected time – this is multitasked time, divided time.

It is time where, at any moment, you are likely to be drawn from your prayer to the needs of the road.

And it is time where you are not FULLY engaged in prayer, but only what you can safely spare.

Better to get up a little earlier and use that dedicated time for prayer before you leave the house.

And, while we are looking at regular times of prayer, please forgive me if I am indelicate, but “bathroom time” is not appropriate for these regular prayer times either.

It is fine to pray there, but choose another room for your regular “prayer closet”.

These regular times of prayer should be times and places that allow you to focus only on God in prayer.

And I realize that in families, particularly where there are young children, those times and places are at a premium.

The precious nature of that time in prayer with God deserves that very level of premium time.

It will be worth the effort and trouble.

One final note before we move to the last point: Don’t get discouraged because you are not the greatest; begin faithfully where you are.

It is easy to measure yourself by other people’s devotion, and we should never do that.

I have not made any suggestion as to the length of this regular prayer time, and I have avoided it until now for good reason.

Time in prayer, for most Christians, is something that must grow through training.

I have known many young believers who, after hearing the hymn “Sweet Hour of Prayer” and realizing the hymn writer was talking about this very subject of a dedicated time for prayer,

They have begun by diving in to a dedicated hour only to find they only pray for 5 minutes and then struggle for how to fill the time.

And then in a very short while, they stop this time all together.

If you have not built up to spending long periods of time in prayer, begin simply, not measuring yourself by a clock, but by the amount of prayer you have for that day.

Practice in this regular time the various types of prayer:

Adoration – Praying by telling God about His greatness and goodness. We see a great many Psalms that instruct us in how to do this.

Confession – Confessing our sins, particularly those we have not yet confessed to God, and allowing our hearts to turn from them. Bring your sins into God’s light through this prayer.

Thanksgiving – Thank God for the things He has given. Everything you have is a product of His grace and mercy, and it is never amiss to be grateful.

Petition – Ask God for the things you need. Daily bread, daily strength, wisdom, or other things. And know that He stands ready to provide all you need.

Intercession – Pray on behalf of others, taking their needs before the throne of grace. Even if they haven’t asked specifically, pray for them. Pray for your church, your elders, and for the work of God around the world.

In this work of regular, daily prayer, it is fine to write things out. The book we gave our graduates this year, the Valley of Vision, is a legacy of faithful believers who recorded their prayers.

3. Don’t stop praying.

In Luke 18:1, we are told:

Now He [Jesus] was telling them a parable to show that at all times they ought to pray and not to lose heart.

This was the prelude to the parable of the troublesome, nagging widow, who kept going to the judge to give her justice.

And he told the parable to teach His disciples not to lose heart, not to CEASE PRAYING.

Don’t stop praying.

1. Don’t stop praying when the answers don’t seem to be coming.

Sometimes God’s timing is not as near as we would like.

In many cases, we are tempted to stop praying, thinking God has just told us “No”.

But that IS the point of the parable of the nagging widow – keep asking.

Yes, I remember that Paul was told in relation to his thorn in the flesh My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness.” (2 Corinthians 12:9),

But I would suggest that based on the entirety of Scripture, unless you KNOW God has told you “No”, keep praying.

If in your understanding you are asking for something that is for God’s glory and the mission God has given you, keep praying.

Many times, what we think MIGHT be a “No” is merely our lack of perseverance in prayer.

WE get tired of asking.

Don’t stop praying when you don’t see the answer.

2. Don’t stop praying when you think God knows everything you need.

In Matthew 6:8, Jesus says:

your Father knows what you need before you ask Him.

Christian, do not let this fact stop you from praying.

Jesus told us this IN THE MIDDLE of a teaching on prayer.

He was warning us against thinking we have to use a lot of words in our requests, “closing the spiritual loopholes” as it were.

The pagans thought they had to specify EVERYTHING to their gods because the gods were looking for ways to answer them, but to do so maliciously.

Like the Djinni who grants three wishes, but does so that those things are curses.

Or like the legend of King Midas, who wished that everything he touched turned to gold,

Their gods were looking for ways to torment them.

The point Jesus makes in Matthew 6-7 is that your heavenly FATHER knows what you need, and He lovingly supplies what you need.

what man is there among you who, when his son asks for a loaf, will give him a stone? 10 Or if he asks for a fish, he will not give him a snake, will he? 11 If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give what is good to those who ask Him! – Matthew 7:9-11

So don’t let the fact that God KNOWS what you need stop you from asking.

We are told to ask.

And it is when we ask, and He supplies, that our faith is strengthened.

What does it build our faith if we receive without asking?

3. Don’t stop praying when things are going easy for you.

Possibly the most dangerous time for our life in prayer is when things are going well.

When we feel like everything is going our way.

We look, and there is nothing we feel like we need.

Everything is running smoothly.

It is dangerous because it is easy to ask ourselves what we have need of God for.

We are tempted to think: I am good right now.

I can skip my prayers today because there is nothing I need.

“Pray without ceasing” also means “don’t stop praying even when everything is ok.”

Keep praying even when you think you have it together.

Brothers and sisters, no matter how you feel, I can assure you – YOU don’t have it together.

Whatever is together is there because GOD holds it together.

We, at our best as well as our worst, are still absolutely dependent upon Him.

We still NEED to pray.