In 1Thessalonians 5:17 a seemingly impossible command is given us when we are told to "pray without ceasing". There are many who suffer with what might be called spiritual attention deficit disorder, prayer begins and you might get in five or so minutes of solid prayer and then start to drift in thoughts or imagination. You catch yourself and get back to the solid prayer only to drift again a few minutes down the line. I cringe at the number of times my prayers have followed this pattern. Think of how dysfunctional our relationships would be if we communicated with our friends and loved ones the same way we communicate with the Lord. Now I don't believe the command to pray without ceasing is given to us to frustrate or bring guilt, but to set forth a standard and challenge. What the Lord desires from us is a consistent readiness for prayer and praise. There is a wonderful picture in the Old Testament that might help in this area. In Leviticus 6:13 the priests who were to minister in the tabernacle were told that the fire on the altar of sacrifice was never to go out "a fire shall always be burning on the altar". The altar was to always be at the ready, a fire ready for use in sacrifice or worship unto the Lord. What a great picture for us when it comes to our prayer lives, our minds can't be in prayer every moment, but our hearts can be in a place of readiness the fire burning prepared without having to warm up instant in praise or petition. The great news for us is that we don't have to create the fire on the altar, the Holy Spirit is the fire upon the altar of our hearts. Our job is to be expecting throughout every day the quickening of the Holy Spirit to pray and then submitting to it and praying. The result is an exciting and powerful habit of praying without ceasing. Through the years I have learned to love and be eager for the Spirit to prick my heart to pray for my sheep at any time of the day. May we all daily ask the Holy Spirit to stoke the fire and help us to be attentive to His moving us to pray.
Good Word Pastor Terry!
ReplyDeleteI love that picture of the fire being the indwelling Spirit of God. It brings to mind the words of a former saint in India who said:
"Have you ever stood in a smithy? Did you notice how the blacksmith held the iron in the fire? It became more and more glowing the longer it lay in the forge, until at last it looked quite like fire. Their on was in the fire, and the fire was in the iron, but the iron was not the fire, nor the fire the iron, When the iron began to glow, the smith could bend it into any shape he desired, but it still remained iron. Even so we still retain our personality when we allow ourselves to be penetrated by Christ."
My the Spirit's penetration of our spirit cause us to be bendable in prayer, yielded to His leading.