1 Thessalonians 5:17: Pray without ceasing.
We all know this verse and we have probably asked ourselves at some point in our existence this kind of thing: “Should I lock myself up in my room 24 hours a day on my knees”?
We will not stop saying that the prayer which is the communication between the Father and us must be considered as a life to lead.
It means that we could not pass time without talking to our Father, it is something that we must do constantly. So the question we ask ourselves is how do we do it in practice?
The important thing is to always be aware of the presence of God in our lives; that no other thought prevails over us but that we are always connected to the Lord through the Holy Spirit within us.
We no longer live for ourselves but only for the Lord; so we must do our best to offer ourselves totally to God.
We submit even to Him what is not visible to the eyes of men in order to let ourselves be dominated by His person; in order to let us be invaded by His presence.
Once we have the Spirit of God within us, we must nurture it by spending time in the presence of God.
We must therefore choose and make our program in such a way that we always remain connected to the source which is the Lord.
We always apologize for the lack of time which does not allow us to remain permanently in prayer but what the Lord wants from us is that we recognize His authority, His sovereignty in every area of our life, and this at all times.
We must give the possibility to the Spirit to influence our choices as well as our thoughts, accept to always be taught by Him, and let Him probe the totality of our hearts.
The Bible elsewhere tells us to make all kinds of supplications and prayers by the Spirit at all times (Ephesians 6:18) and this is not possible if we do not allow time for the Spirit of God to instruct and reveal to us the heart of God.
It is important that we set up programs of meditation and daily prayers but when we receive a particular call to prayer, we must respond to it promptly and it is in this obedience alone that we will recognize that we are praying as God wants.
The Lord does not ask us to have both knees on the ground all day; He always wants our thoughts to be with Him. That we always allow ourselves to be dominated by His presence; that we put it first and give it our full attention every moment.
As we have said in other articles, prayer is not about coming to God all the time: communication involves an exchange of both parties.
We must always pay attention to God, always and constantly. We must always show interest in Him at every moment; this is what allows us to maintain this relationship and to be able to live according to the recommendation: “Pray without ceasing”!
Since prayer is defined as we know it as a means of communication between God and us and not as the means by which we must come to claim blessings, we can now have this life of prayer, since we realize that we need to stay with the Lord to know what His will is. After revealing the will of God to us, we must pray for this God to manifest himself in our lives.
We must desire this desire deep within us and also desire to see it realized. This is what praying without ceasing is about; after knowing the thought of God, desire it to happen. This is why God wants our thoughts to be influenced by His at all times.
CHECKOUT:
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- Opening prayer for a meeting and Bible study
- 11 examples of prayers in the bible
How to pray with faith to touch God
The Bible recommends that we have faith when we want to approach God because, without it, it is impossible to please Him. And this is so necessary when we pray. Very often we pray but not in faith.
We just come up with our requests without much conviction and then we leave. In this article, we are going to talk about how to pray in faith to reach God in a certain way.
This can help you be effective in your way of praying.
To pray with faith, you must first know God!
Hebrews 11:6 (KJV): “But without faith, it is impossible to please Him. For whoever approaches God must believe that He exists and that He rewards those who seek Him.
Do you want to approach God, or do you want to pray with faith? You must believe that He exists because without Him your faith is vain. But that is not enough, in addition to believing in His existence, you must accept Him in your heart. Because here is a man who believes that God exists but who has not yet met Him until the day when God will reveal to him that he needs to listen to a word that will save him and his family. This story is found in Acts 10.1-8 and Acts 11.13-15.
We see in the first four verses that this man Cornelius was pious and feared God, and his family too. So he is someone who believes that God exists.
In addition, he was generous and prayed a lot, but he was not yet saved despite everything he did.
He needed to meet Jesus. It was then that the apostle Peter came to speak to him about Christ and at that very moment, the Spirit of Christ descended on him and on all his family.
Prayer is a relationship.
Matthew 14:23 (KJV): “When He sent her away, He went up the mountain to pray apart, and when evening came He was there alone.
Luke 6:12 (KJV): “At that time Jesus retired to the mountain to pray, and spent the whole night praying to God.
Matthew 6.6 (KJV): “But you, when you pray, go into your room, close your door and pray to your Father who is there in the secret place; and your Father, who sees in secret, will reward you openly.
We see that in these three texts, Jesus Himself was an example in prayer and taught His disciples what prayer is. To pray, Jesus withdrew; he needed to be alone on the mountain: to say that prayer is first of all this communion that we must have with God.
In this fellowship, God also speaks and we listen (Acts 10:9).
And that is what He taught His disciples. This is why Jesus could spend all night praying because He was not the only one talking, God was also communicating things to Him.
Prayer with faith and trust in Jesus and His Word.
Romans 10:17 (KJV): “So faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God.
Praying with faith here does not mean shouting, nor is it aligning our requests when we are in the presence of God, but rather trusting what God is telling us in His Word.
God calls us to believe in His Word and what He communicates to us daily through His Spirit. That doesn’t mean we don’t have demands and burdens; but even when these things exist, we choose to surrender and let Jesus guide us in our daily prayers.
Because even before opening his mouth and saying Father, He knows what we need (Matthew 6. 7-8). So let us go into the presence of the Lord with a willing and confident heart rather than a filled one. It is this prayer of faith that will make you grow in the knowledge of the Word of the Lord, which will allow you to be more and more firm on what the Lord shows you.
So praying with faith means losing sight of earthly realities and the situations we sometimes go through instead of leaning on the truth that is Jesus. Because that’s what God says He does, not what we think for ourselves.
10 benefits of prayer in the Christian life
God, our loving Heavenly Father, wants us to communicate with Him through prayer. He always hears us when we pray.
Daily prayer can bless you, your family, and those you pray for. It can also bring more peace into your life and help you learn more about God’s plan for you.
Here you will find 10 ways prayer can improve your life, starting today.
1. Prayer helps you develop a relationship with God.
Just like your parents here on earth, your Heavenly Father wants to hear from you and talk to you. When you pray, He listens. Then He answers your prayers through thoughts, feelings, scriptures, and even though other people’s actions.
2. Prayer helps you gain an understanding of God’s loving nature.
The scriptures teach that “God is love” (1 John 4:8). You can feel that love by talking to him daily through prayer and seeking his guidance in your life.
3. Prayer gives us answers
Praying and listening to God’s answers can help you better understand your purpose in life. God will help you understand why you are here and what you can do to return to live with Him after this life.
4. Prayer helps you find guidance in your life.
When you pray to God in private, you can process and resolve difficult situations in your life. God always hears us and often provides us with the specific answers and guidance we seek. Even when He chooses not to answer immediately or in the way we hoped, prayer is a way to find peace.
5. Prayer gives you the strength to avoid temptations
Jesus counseled His disciples, “Watch and pray that you enter not into temptation” (Matthew 26:41). Through prayer, we can overcome temptations to sin. Pray for God’s help to keep you from making wrong decisions. This will give you the strength to do what is right.
6. Prayer aligns your will with the will of God
The purpose of prayer is not necessarily to tell God how we want Him to do things. Rather, it is to better understand him and his ways, bringing us into alignment with his will. As is often attributed to CS Lewis, the sentence “doesn’t change God, it changes me.”
7. Frequent prayer and fasting can help you accept God’s will
Jesus fasted 40 days and 40 nights before beginning his ministry on earth. In doing so, he communed with his Father in Heaven in prayer. Similarly, if you pray and fast, you can be closer to God and better understand the things He wants you to do.
Throughout the scriptures, we see many examples of the Lord working miracles in answer to prayer. In Old Testament times, the prophet Daniel was thrown into the lion’s den because he refused to stop praying. When he prayed to God in the lion’s den, angels appeared and closed the lions’ mouths. Through daily prayer, you can experience personal miracles, such as healing, peace, and forgiveness of your sins.
9. Prayer invites the Holy Spirit into your life
As you pray daily, you invite the Holy Spirit to be with you and to comfort and guide you. The Holy Spirit can give you answers, help you feel God’s love, and bring a feeling of peace and joy to your heart.
10. Prayer helps you become more like Jesus
Jesus set the perfect example of prayer. If you work to follow his example through prayer, you can become more like him and develop a better relationship with Jesus and Heavenly Father.
5 Bible verses that assure you that God hears all your prayers
God in His perfect will, has always wanted us to be in permanent communication with Him, and this by means called prayer. Prayer can simply be defined as talking to God.
Being a dialogue and not a monologue, we take pleasure in communicating with God when we know that He can hear us. So through these few verses, I hope you will be assured that God hears your prayers:
Psalms 65:3: You who hear prayers, all can approach you.
By reading this text, we understand that prayer is one of the means by which we can approach God. It is, in fact, an appointment with the Divine.
And this text begins with strong assurance: the Bible says that the reason we should approach God in prayer is that he has the ability to listen to everything we say to him in prayer.
This even demonstrates that God is different from the idols made by men and which they regard as their gods. These idols do not have the ability to hear, let alone act as is written in Isaiah 46:5-8.
So I would like to encourage you to constantly approach God in prayer; He not only listens but He is also the only person who will never tire of listening to you, no matter how many times you go to Him.
Proverbs 15:29: The Lord stands far from the wicked, but He hears the prayer of the righteous.
This text introduces an important element regarding the fact that God hears our prayers. This text introduces the notion of justice, to tell us that it is not enough just to pray, but the state in which we pray is also important for God to hear us. This is why the Bible says in Isaiah 59:1-2 (KJV ): “No, the hand of the Lord is not too short to save, nor His ear too dull to hear. But it is your crimes that separate you from your God. It is your sins that hide His face from you and prevent Him from listening to you.
He is righteous who has already accepted Christ into his life, because it is by faith in the work of the cross that Jesus clothes us with His righteousness (Romans 3:25-26; 5:18-19), so that when we pray, God hears us because we present ourselves with the righteousness of His Son. So if you live in Christ, look at this other promise that God makes to you regarding your prayers: “For the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous and his ears are attentive to their prayer…” 1 Peter 3:12 (KJV ).
2 Chronicles 7:14 If then My people who are called by My name humble themselves, pray and seek My grace, if they turn away from their evil conduct, I will hearken to them from heaven, I will forgive his sins and heal his country.
In this passage, God reassures us that He will listen to our prayers but before that, He first establishes some conditions to respect.
Here I want to emphasize humility. When you want to talk to God, you don’t do it as if you were talking to your friend. Some prayers are not heard by God, just because we go forward in pride as the Pharisee Jesus describes in Luke 18:10-14. If you want God to hear your prayers, come forward with humility.
1 John 5:14: We have this assurance with Him, that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us.
It is fine to pray but it is better to pray according to the will of God because this text tells us that God listens to prayers that are made according to His will. So don’t just try to pray, but first try to know God’s will for your subject of prayer, then when you pray, He will hear you without any problem.
1 Thessalonians 5:17: Pray without ceasing.
This instruction in itself also hides the fact that God hears us when we pray. Because God can’t instruct us to do something if He knows He’s not going to react to it. So if God instructs us to pray without ceasing, it means that He is also ready to hear us constantly, because our prayers are addressed to Him. To pray without ceasing means that our lives are in continual prayer. That said, the latter does not necessarily constitute a stop in our occupations.
We now understand how to pray as if we were breathing. So, dear brothers and sisters in faith, let us make ourselves available to the Lord. Let us not miss the appointments we have made with the Lord; let us respect them but also be attentive when He sends us a precise and particular invitation, outside our usual times because it is in our good.
May His Spirit help us!
