Unceasing Prayer

Pray without ceasing. 1 Thess. 5:17

 

 

Was this exhortation to the Christians at Thessalonica merely a counsel of perfection? Did Paul really consider it an attainable ideal to "pray always with all prayer and supplication"? (Eph. 6:18).

 

Undoubtedly to him this was both a glorious possibility and an actual experience.

 

"Unceasingly I make mention of you in my prayers," he wrote. "Night and day praying exceedingly." "Praying at all seasons." "Watch ye, and pray always."

 

On God's side, Paul's experience of unceasing prayer sprang from the working within him of the Spirit of prayer. On his own part it was the response of a sensitive and willing spirit. Nor was it confined to formal seasons of prayer. Those informal, involuntary, ejaculatory prayers native to the praying heart were in his view.

Charles H. Spurgeon once said that he had not known a half-hour for years in which he had not consciously prayed. To him, through disciplined habit, unceasing prayer had become almost instinctive, as natural as breathing. To the Spirit-indwelt heart every occurrence, every occasion, becomes the inspiration of prayer.

 

But prayer is not an exercise of the conscious mind alone. Henry Moorhouse, the great evangelist of a past generation, frequently prayed aloud in his sleep. "I sleep, but my heart waketh" (Song of Songs 5:2), was true of him. Even in sleep, the ever-burning fire of the Holy Spirit within caused the fragrant incense of prayer to ascend from the altar of his heart.

 

It is ours to form this blessed habit, to find in God a Friend always within call, to use everything as an occasion for prayer. Through intimacy and obedience we may know the Holy Spirit's unceasing intercession within us (Rom. 8:27), just as on high our Great High Priest makes unceasing intercession for us (Heb. 7:25).