All posts tagged: Pray without ceasing

Keeping Prayer Simple

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When I looked at prayer in the past, I thought it meant praying for at least one hour before it counted, and this belief discouraged me from entering into prayer. I believed that it was just too hard to incorporate into my everyday life and as a result prayer was often the last thing I did. Then I started feeling guilty about not praying enough, and this led me to just stop praying altogether because I felt my prayers weren’t good enough or long enough, so why bother. The priests ministering in the temple in the Old Testament had a great spiritual responsibility to offer sacrifices to God for the sins of the people. But they also had other duties. These were called ‘sacred lots’ where the menial duties of priesthood were divided up including such things as kitchen duties, yard work and providing oversight to the Levites. They had other necessary duties that did not include the sacrifices, but were important enough to be called ‘sacred.’ Understanding that the Old Testament priests had menial …

What coughing teaches us about prayer?

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[by Dean Smith] My children were the first to get it. A couple of weeks later, I started to feel stuffed up. Then came the sore throat and finally the cough. It wasn’t like I coughed all the time, but I had regular coughing episodes three or four times an hour. And through this miserable time, I learned a lesson on prayer. In 1 Thessalonians 5:17, the Apostle Paul exhorts us to “pray without ceasing.” This verse is a bit puzzling, because if you prayed without ceasing — as the New American Standard reads — it would be near impossible to do anything else, like work, talk, eat or sleep. At first glance, the Greek word “adialeiptos”  (translated unceasing) suggests we are to pray all the time. Thayer interprets it as “unceasing and continual.”