“Pray without ceasing” – 1
Thessalonians 5:17
A few years ago a friend posed
a question to me.
Is it possible, in the midst of a normal work schedule while
giving your mind and attention to everyday tasks, to honestly put all your
energies, mental and physical, towards prayer? I've been meditating on this a
lot lately and I've been asking the Lord to give me the grace to enter into
what I've been calling the ‘prayer of total’; all that is within me communing
and fellowshipping with God all the time. Is this realistically possible in
this life?
I guess I’m banking on Jesus’ promise that all things are possible
for Him who believes, but I’ve also been considering phrases like Ps 16:11 “I
have set the Lord always before me” and 1 Chron. 16:11 “Seek His presence
continually”.
The reality is the Lord is calling us to a fellowship with His
Holy Spirit that is day in and day out, even that it would be no longer we who
live but Christ Himself who lives in us.
Paul puts it like this in 1st
Corinthians 15: “I die daily”.
I guess my exhortation to us as a body, myself
included, is to fix our eyes on Jesus and set our mind on heavenly things with
a determined zeal and a love that will not be deterred until Christ is formed
in our inner man as we see Him as He is. Until love is completed, our
fellowship unbroken, and our prayer ceaseless.
-Ian