Prayer! What is it?

 

"Pray without ceasing"
1 Thessalonians 5:17

How many of us have struggled with this verse? The thought of never ending prayer can be daunting, especially if we feel like we're not doing it correctly. Do we repeat the Lord's Prayer forever? Do we constantly reel off our shopping list of requests until God gets bored with our incessant repetition? The Bible can't seriously be saying that we are to pray without ceasing, right? Well, Yes and No!

Look at these other Bible translations that help give us a rounder image of this verse:

"Never stop praying"
NLT

"Be unceasing and persistent in prayer"
AMP

"Continually be prayerful"
ISV

That last one is especially helpful, "be prayerful", or, be "full of prayer"!

Here is where I find people struggle. From all of my years as a Christian, then as a leader, then as a Pastor, all of the struggle comes down to definition, what is "Prayer"? Fortunately for us the Bible defines prayer better than any pastor or preacher. I am a big advocate for returning to the simplest definition of a subject to help people remember the meaning and purpose of a subject. Prayer simply means—talk to God! 

However, the purpose for the conversations I have with God are higher than a chit-chat, and this is where my most favourite definition for prayer instructs me. It is from the HELPS-Word Study dictionary:

"Pray – literally, to interact with the Lord by switching human wishes (ideas) for His wishes"

A divine exchange occurs when we pray. This is one of the many reason why Paul encourages us to be continually prayerful. To fill our days with dialogue with God as we face each and every issue in our days. Your prayer life will look completely different from mine because you face things that I won't. Even though there may be similarities, each of us have the opportunity to talk with God about everything we face. 

Dallas WIllard, in his book The Divine Conspiracy, speaks of our crippling default of not going to Jesus about everything. Our wrong thinking limits Jesus to being just a good man, or a holy man. We limit Him in our eyes from being an intelligent man, or a genius. We go to other humans for specialities, but not Jesus, as we falsely believe that He only deals with religious/spiritual things. This false belief devalues Christ, practically, in our eyes. 

So, what if we were to invite Him into our minute by minute and hour by hour lives, what would happen? We would not pray all of the primer phrases we use to get to what we're asking for, we wouldn't have time for that, we would just talk normally to God. See, we should not have a "prayer" voice, our regular voice is enough, so when we pray we talk to God with our voice. Not like a thundering thespian, or a little church mouse, just our normal voice. God wants an ever-deepening conversation with us that we dip in and out of with Him during the day, until we live "continually...prayerful".

Prayer is talking with God, and Him talking to us. Sometimes we vent. Sometimes we weep. Sometimes we ask. Sometimes we are silent. Other times we thank, and other times we carry God's heart for a situation until we feel the burden has lifted for that need. That is prayer. Prayer must be real, raw, and honest. I love the prayer in the Bridge of the song "Hosanna" written by Brooke Ligertwood:

Heal my heart and make it clean
Open up my eyes to the things unseen
Show me how to love like You have loved me
Break my heart for what breaks Yours
Everything I am for Your Kingdom's cause
As I walk from earth into eternity

Now, do I pray without ceasing? NOPE! But I know that "without ceasing" is a standard to work towards. That's why I like the International Standard Version's rendering to be "continually...prayerful", to keep my prayer tank full, or being filled and keeping it topped up. Also, I now understand more than I did when I was younger, that during those times of prayer I am exchanging elementary thoughts and understanding for divine thoughts and understanding. It really does help us see the world differently. For example, a thought that I received during prayer last week has had me meditating on in a lot: 

"There is chaos in the world but the world is not in chaos"

This is why I watch very little news because it can lead us to believe that the world is in chaos, when there are actually just pockets of chaos across the globe. Again, Dallas Willard said it best, warning of the dangers when we do not see a "God-bathed and God-permeated world". He writes:

"It is a world that is inconceivably beautiful and good because of God and because God is always in it. It is a world in which God is continually at play and over which he constantly rejoices. Until our thoughts of God have found every visible thing and event glorious with his presence, the word of Jesus has not yet fully seized us.”

When the angels look at the earth they see the glory of God (Isaiah 6:3), a lot of christians see chaos and sin and disorder. Through prayer we should exchange our limited viewpoint for God's elevated viewpoint. This will change how we see the world, and how we pray for the world.

Mwy Arglwydd...