I Thessalonians 5:17 "Pray without Ceasing"
One of the greatest resources of any Christian is prayer. For prayer
is our communication with God. There is a old saying that says, much prayer, much power; little prayer, little power; no prayer, no power. Now the question arises this morning, How is your prayer life?
You know when we where little kids we had great aspirations and dreams of what we wanted to be in life...Sports stars, musicians, doctors, lawyers, firemen, policemen and the list goes on, but many of us didn't reach the pinnacle of our lofty dreams. WHY? Well, for most of us, we realized the cost (time, energy, money) we must pay to get where we wanted to go was just to great, so we just ceased. This word cease means to stop, to discontinue, to bring to a halt, to terminate, to bring to an end.
Yet, as any soldier learns, the training does not cease just because you made it through basic training, but you must continue to practice, to learn and to perfect your skills that you may be ready for battle.
Paul says in Ephesians 6:10-11, "Finally, my brethren, be strong in
the LORD, and in the power of His might. Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil." He then goes on in verse 14-17 to speak about having your loins girt with truth, the breastplate of righteousness, feet shod with the prepar- ation of the gospel of peace, the shield of faith, the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, the Word of God. When he
finishes all of that he gives some final marching orders..."Praying
always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit..."
What was Paul saying...."PRAY WITHOUT CEASING." He was saying Never give up praying! Pray constantly! Never cease to pray! Be unceasing in prayer - pray with all perseverance!
IF we stop everything else today, don't stop praying. For we are
soldiers in the army of the LORD and we must stay in communications with headquarters. For you see...Only headquarters knows the master plan. Only headquarters has an all seeing eye that surveys and runs reconnaissance missions into enemy territory and knows the strengths and weakness of the enemy. Only headquarters can send us the right equipment to do battle with all that the enemy has to offer. But...
we must keep in constant, communication...without ceasing!
So when Satan has a war going in with your husband or your wife or your children or your friend or your boss or whatever...don't
surrender, call headquarters...PRAY!
There is one more thing that you need to know. The enemy is listening in on our communications and desires to scramble our message to HQ, but you need to know the code so that all of our prayers are received by the high command. So we send the coded message - Morse code (.---/./..././..-/...). Heaven gets the message and begins to decipher the code. (.---) that's J as in joyful and jubilant, (.) that's E as in exciting and excellent, (...) that's S as in Sovereign and sufficient, (..-) that's U as in unbelievable and unforgettable, and here's the final part of the message (...) it's S again as Saviour and Son (of God)! Put them all together and what does it spell but
JESUS! When there is a war going on and the enemy begins to lay siege against us just call on Jesus! He who is the Strong Arm of the LORD and Refuge in the time of trouble for He knows how to deliver!
Remember...Pray without Ceasing! Keep every in touch with God!
Have a Blessed Day...Be PRAYERFUL and THANKFUL for all things!!!
Edward Price