The DriveSample

When to Pray

It’s hard to imagine that you can “never stop praying” or as other translations put it “pray without stopping”, but this discipline is completely possible. You just need to alter the way you look at prayer. Prayer can happen anywhere and it can take the shape of many different methods.

The apostle Paul isn’t saying that we have to spend 24 hours a day with our eyes closed, head bowed, and speaking words. That’s impractical, and quite honestly impossible. However, if we model our prayer lives as Jesus showed us in Matthew 6, we can clearly see a direct link between joy, prayer, and thanksgiving. These three weapons of our warfare are clearly linked together. In other words, demonstrating joy in the midst of chaos is walking in a perpetual state of prayer. Showing gratitude, even in lack, shows a form of prayer called thanksgiving. 

As Paul was addressing the church of Thessalonica and how the early followers of Christ were to live, his instructions are for you, the believer, for today. In addressing conflict, persecution, culture, and other forms of disorder, are you functioning in this 3-form lifestyle of prayer? If not, are you taking the steps necessary? Steps that worked for the early church, and will certainly work for today.

Goal:

Today is your day to operate in and demonstrate the three braided cord of prayer; joy, prayer, and thanksgiving. Function in these three, and you’ll fulfill the “Never Stop Praying” instruction Paul gives the church.