Praying Without Ceasing

— Contributed by Precarii User Dave Roderick

My Dream Job

If I could find a way, I would spend my working hours praying.  Just imagine it, getting to spend 40 hours a week in prayer.  I know of one guy who does that, but he is a hermit.  He intentionally spends his life in prayer for others.  He isn’t married and he doesn’t have a family.  In fact, he is a monk that has permission to live alone.  I don’t think that my wife would allow me to become a hermit.  I wouldn’t want to leave her.  I’ve grown attached to her over the years.

Paul says in 1 Thessalonians that we should pray continually.  If you are like most readers, you can’t and you don’t have any desires to drop everything and live alone so you can spend a great deal of your time in prayer.  When I was Prayer Coordinator with InterVarsity, it allowed me more time to pray than I do now, but I had to stop and do the work of coordinating prayer.  Frankly, I miss the opportunity I had to pray more because it was a part of the job.  With all this in mind, the question that this hub seeks to answer is; how do we pray without ceasing?

God’s Presence

Here is another mystery of the faith.  People are quick to say that God is everywhere.  But there are times when it feels like He is far from us.  There are times in my own life when it seems as if God is with me and it is very easy to pray.  At other times it feels like God far from me.  But yet, God is, in fact, everywhere.  How can this be?

I think we need to be intentional about acknowledging His presence.  One way I do this is in a practice called Centering Prayer.  It is prayer that you can’t fail at. The purpose of it is to intentionally bring yourself into the presence of God.  So, when you feel as if you are failing, in reality you are not.  The key to this is to have a phrase or an image that you use to bring your mind back.  You allow yourself to be open to what God has to say or be open to the idea that He might not have anything to say and He is happy just to spend time with you.

Daily Life With God

As believers, we walk by faith and not by sight.  As we walk along life, we need to stop and realize that God is always speaking to us.  We just need to have ears that hear.  For me, having time with God when I first get up is very valuable.  It helps me to realize that God was with me throughout the night.  And I get to start the day with God.

One thing I have written is a rule of life.  In reality, it is more about goals for my life and some of them are about my spirit being formed by God.  One goal I have is to increase my intentionality that God is always with me. We can look at in many different ways.  One thing I’ve been thinking about is having a spiritual discipline for when I’m stopped at a red light.  I would love to hear suggestions that you might have.

Prayer Without Ceasing List

Here are some suggestions on how you can be praying without ceasing.

• Build Prayer Into Your Schedule:  This takes intentionality.  In other words, if you don’t plan times of prayer, it is less likely that it’s going to happen.  I say put it on your calendar so you can have a reminder.
• Pray on the Spot:  Instead of saying, I will pray for you, offer to pray on the spot. Confession is good for the soul – there are many times I say I will pray for someone and then I don’t pray for them.  This way, we don’t forget to pray.  I do this with emails that I get from ministries that I agree to pray for.  This way I don’t forget to pray for them.
• Precarii Prayer App:  Precarii is a great way to pray for others.  Every time you pray, it will notify the person that you just prayed for their request.  Precarii is great because when you are waiting in line you can use it to be praying.
• Reminders:  Think about your day. What are things or places that can remind that God is always with you?  Once you identify them, every time it comes up, take a second to think about God.  Here are some suggestions:
  • Stop light and stop sign
  • When you turn onto the road for home and work
  • The co-worker who pushes your buttons enters the room
  • What are your thoughts?
• Alarms:  One of the alarms I have set in my phone is to remind me to “Pray for One”.  Praying for one is praying that God will give you an opportunity to share about Him. When my alarm goes off, I take 30 seconds to pray for this.  What are some things that you want to pray for that you can set a alarm in your phone?
• Your Thoughts:  What do you do to remind you that God is always with you?  Please share in the comment section either here on the hub or in the social media site you found this hub on.

Keep on Praying

Praying without ceasing is all about reminding yourself that you are in God’s presence.  I know that as I go throughout my day I have moments when I say something to God asking him to act or acknowledging Him that He is there. It is why I end each hub with “pray early and often.”

So folks, get out there and pray, pray, and pray.  Early and often.