“We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, in our prayers for you … For this reason we have not stopped praying for you since the day we heard about you. We ask God to fill you with the knowledge of his will through every kind of spiritual wisdom and insight. We ask this so that you will live the kind of lives that prove you belong to the Lord. Then you will want to please him in every way as you grow in producing every kind of good work by this knowledge about God. We ask him to strengthen you by his glorious might with all the power you need to patiently endure everything with joy.” Colossians 1:3, 9-11 (GW)
Paul regularly wrote of his consistent and unceasing prayer for the saints throughout his epistles. To the Romans he wrote, “God has seen how I never stop praying for you, while I serve him with all my heart and tell the good news about his Son.1” To the Church at Corinth he wrote, “I thank my God always concerning you, for the grace of God which was given you in Christ Jesus.2” To the Ephesians he wrote, “[I] do not cease from giving thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers.3” He told his disciple Timothy, “I continually remember thee in my prayers, by night and by day.4” And to the Thessalonians he said, “Pray without ceasing.5”
Paul truly believed in unceasing prayer and he modeled it in his daily life. There are no excuses for us today. Life in Paul’s day was just as hard, if not harder than life today. They didn’t have any of the modern ‘conveniences’ that we take for granted. Admittedly they wouldn’t didn’t have the same technological ‘problems’ that we have today. But human nature has always been human nature. If we can think of 1001 reasons not to pray in these days, then two thousand years ago they also would have come up with 1001 reasons not to pray!
The difference between Paul’s attitude and most of ours is that Paul didn’t live by excuses not to pray, he made excuses for why he should pray … without ceasing.
The commandment to pray without ceasing is a very hard saying. I don’t think there is a single person on the face of the earth who would say that it is easy to follow Paul’s example of praying without ceasing. However, since we know that Paul did it, we also know that there is a way for each one of us to develop our prayer lives to the level where we are constantly offering prayer to God.
So how did Paul do it?
A great secret is found in a passage of scripture in the book of Philippians. Writing to the Church in Philippi he said, “I thank my God upon every remembrance of you.” The Good News Bible says, “I thank my God for you every time I think of you.” And the Message Version says, “Every time you cross my mind, I break out in exclamations of thanks to God. Each exclamation is a trigger to prayer. I find myself praying for you with a glad heart.”
Paul’s secret was to pray every time that he remembered the churches, remembered the saints and remembered their needs. Instead of making that remembrance a point of worry or anxiety, he made it a point of prayer. No-one can stop thinking – God designed our souls that way. If we would simply make a character adjustment to pray each time that the thoughts of family members, workplace issues, church needs, political and spiritual leaders and other things enter our minds then we have just learned Paul’s secret to unceasing prayer!
“The highest rank is servant”
Radical Disciples - A Remnant Revolution 