Be Persistent!

Pray without ceasing. (1 Thess.5:13, NRSV)

Pray without ceasing: entreat God persistently and regularly. Paul wasn't telling us to pray in a repetitious manner or to pray without taking a break. What he was saying was that praying should be as much a part of our daily lives as all the other things are that we deem to be essential to living life. As important as eating and drinking are for physical strength, as important as working is so that we can pay our bills and take care of our families, prayer is just as important. As not just some general or vague prayer that we feel obligated to offer God because we're Christian. I'm talking about daily, persistent, earnest, fervent, effectual prayer.

I'm talking about the kind of prayer which shows God that we understand just how much we need him. You got things in your life that you need? A sin you need deliverance from, bondage you need freedom from, do you need healing, restoration, joy, peace, comfort? Talk to your God about it. Push aside some of the things taking up time in your day, bow yourself humbly before his throne of grace and make your petitions known to him.

God has allowed us to stand before him and fellowship with him, to enter into an intimate relationship with him. And yet these are things many of us never take full advantage of. Instead we convince ourselves that we're just too busy to make daily time for pray, relegating our time spent speaking to our Lord to praying when we wake up, before we go to bed, and sometimes before we eat, and for some of us not even that much time is dedicated to him.

So you have needs today that need to be filled and only God can fill them? Tal to him. Talk to him with purpose, with urgency. Talk to him reverentially. Plead with him and do this on a daily basis. Make fellowship with God a regular part of your day like eating is and see if you don't notice a change in your life. Today I vow to pray without ceasing; I vow to make a healthy, persistent, regular prayer life priority number one in my life and I pray that all of you who are reading will do so also. Let's be persistent and never stop.