Pray Continually
By Shirley Mitchell
“Be joyful always; pray continually; give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus.”
1 Thessalonians 5:16-18
While meditating on these three verses, God gave me today’s devotion and two other devotions, “Be Joyful Always” and “Give Thanks.” These verses were Victoria’s Scriptures to memorize at school. Every time my kids learn verses at school, I learn them, too, since I go over them so many times with my daughters.
We were driving home from church on Wednesday night after choir practice. The car was full with my three daughters, Charlie, and Bryana - who are our neighbors. From the very back seat, Bryana started telling me about a tough situation at school. A bully was picking on her. If you know how I let the bullies get to me with their words that really do hurt worse than sticks and stones if we let them wield power over us, then you can imagine how much I wanted to get to the heart of that boy.
While I was still seeking to learn more about the story, Sophia blurted out, “Mama, it’s time to pray.” She was right. I can be so guilty of seeking information so “I know how to pray for a situation” that I can get sucked into spending more time than necessary understanding the situation. I knew we were going to pray, but I spent too much time of a short car ride home talking instead of praying. All six of us started to pray for the situation, for Bryana, and for the bully. It was one of our best prayer times ever in the car because the kids were all focused on the same request. All of them knew God was the One to turn to with Bryana’s big problem.
Sophia’s cut-to-the-chase action reminded me of these verses that I was teaching Victoria. I found it interesting that sandwiched between “be joyful” and “give thanks always” are two powerful words that are the key to life – pray continually. I believe that if we live a life of being joyful always and giving thanks, then the natural result will be someone who prays continually because we can’t help but give praise to the One who has authored our joy and thankfulness. We desire to be close to the One responsible. After studying this verse more, I realized that it is a cycle. When we live a life of prayer, the natural product of being closer to God is experiencing His joy and being thankful. We are impressed with the kindness of God. Then, the cycle continues because we acknowledge all that He has done in our lives. We acknowledge it through prayer!
Some people get hung up on the word continually and think it is such a high, impossible goal to pray continually. They think it is something they can never achieve so why bother trying. Continually means unceasingly, habitually, without interruptions or intermissions. It doesn’t mean that we should cease working, forsake our family, neglect all of our chores, and cloister ourselves in our prayer closets and never stop praying. It simply means that we should be in constant communication with God. God should consciously be on our thoughts. Therefore, we will take everything to Him in prayer. We can pray to God while we tend to our kids. We can pray to God while we drive, while we do laundry, while we are working, or while we are cleaning the house. Additionally, we also should have set times of the day where we just get alone with Him and give Him all of our attention. We shut out all of the distractions and bring our troubles before His throne and pour out our hearts to Him. Some people’s prayer time may be longer than others, but small amounts of time are better than no time at all. So give it all you have, beloved, and let’s pray!
Pray with me:Oh, Lord, we want to live the life of prayer. We want praying continually to be our lifestyle. So Lord, we come into Your throne room where You are high and exalted. The train of Your robe fills the temple. Where the seraphs, declare, "Holy, holy, holy is the LORD Almighty; the whole earth is full of his glory (Isaiah 6).” We are in awe of You. We bow down and worship You now. We declare that You are holy.
We desire You. You hold us by our right hand. You guide us with Your counsel, and afterward You will take us into glory. Whom have we in heaven but You? And earth has nothing we desire besides You. Our flesh and our hearts may fail, but You are the strength of our hearts and our portion forever (Psalm 73:23-26).
You are great and greatly to be praised. You are perfect. Everything is possible with You, and nothing is impossible. Thank you for being Almighty, yet approachable. Thank You for being worthy while we are not worthy without the blood of Your precious Son. Thank You so much, Jesus, for dying on the cross for our sins. We love You! Thank You for interceding for us. It’s in Your Name, Yeshua’s Name, we pray. Amen.