Speaker 1: Teach Us to Praise brought to you by Life Audio
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Speaker 2: Welcome back, friend. You are listening to the Teach Us
Speaker 2: to Pray podcast, where we teach believers practical and real
Speaker 2: life tips on how to grow your faith and relationship
Speaker 2: with God through the power of prayer. I'm Christina Patterson,
Speaker 2: host of the Teach Us to Pray podcast and founder
Speaker 2: of Beloved Women, where I encourage, equip and empower women
Speaker 2: in the love of Jesus Christ and the truth of
Speaker 2: God's Word. I'm so excited to be back with you
Speaker 2: with another episode to talk about how we communicate with God,
Speaker 2: how we can hear from Him through the power of prayer. Today,
Speaker 2: I want to talk to you about a verse in
Speaker 2: the Bible. It's a very short verse. It's the one
Speaker 2: you've probably heard before, and it is all about prayer.
Speaker 2: It's First Thessalonians, chapter five, verse seventeen. In the New
Speaker 2: International Version, it says pray continually. In the New Living Translation,
Speaker 2: it says never stop praying. In the English Standard version.
Speaker 2: This might be the version that you're most used to
Speaker 2: hearing this verse, It says, pray without ceasing. The Apostle
Speaker 2: Paul wrote this letter to the church to instruct believers
Speaker 2: on how to conduct themselves as children of God as
Speaker 2: they wait on the return of Christ and all that
Speaker 2: he tells them to do. In this letter we find
Speaker 2: this short, simple verse on how they and we should pray.
Speaker 2: We are called to pray without ceasing. Now, I know
Speaker 2: that can bring up a lot of questions like, well, one,
Speaker 2: is it possible to pray without ceasing? And if so,
Speaker 2: how does one actually pray without ceasing? How can I
Speaker 2: pray all the time? I have things to do, and
Speaker 2: bills to pay, and kids to take care of and
Speaker 2: work that has to be done. I just can't pray
Speaker 2: all the time. And if you feel that God wouldn't
Speaker 2: call us to do something that He hasn't equipped us
Speaker 2: to do or that wasn't possible for us to do,
Speaker 2: you're correct. So the idea of praying without ceasing shows
Speaker 2: that prayer it's not about location or formalities. It's just
Speaker 2: a continual conversation with God. The call to pray without
Speaker 2: ceasing implies that prayer is more than closing our and
Speaker 2: saying some words, but it's about connecting with the God
Speaker 2: of the universe at all times. Praying without ceasing does
Speaker 2: not mean that your every thought or word is praying
Speaker 2: to God. Obviously, I'm talking to you right now, and
Speaker 2: I'm not in a traditional form of praying to God
Speaker 2: right now. Praying without ceasing means that we just don't
Speaker 2: stop the practice of praying. I want you to think
Speaker 2: of a runner. They don't run every waking minute of
Speaker 2: every day, but there's still a runner because they practice
Speaker 2: running every day or every few days. They do it continually,
Speaker 2: and they don't stop. The same is true for us
Speaker 2: as believers. We are expected to pray. We are expected
Speaker 2: to continually be in communication with God. We are called
Speaker 2: to consistently practice the discipline of prayer. I love this
Speaker 2: quote from Matthew Henry about what it means to pray
Speaker 2: without ceasing. He says, the meaning is not that men
Speaker 2: should do nothing but pray, but that nothing else we
Speaker 2: do should hinder prayer in its proper season. Prayer will
Speaker 2: help forward, not hinder all other lawful business and every
Speaker 2: good work. What we further learn is that we're not
Speaker 2: supposed to just be in our prayer closet twenty four
Speaker 2: seven three sixty five always praying. What good will we
Speaker 2: be to our families in the world if we did that?
Speaker 2: But we are to continually pray so that we are
Speaker 2: empowered in the work that God has called us to
Speaker 2: do in our families, in our church, in our communities,
Speaker 2: in our own lives. When we pray without ceasing, it's
Speaker 2: not about the act of prayer. It's about a heart
Speaker 2: to pray anywhere, any way, about any thing. And those
Speaker 2: are the three things that I want to break down
Speaker 2: to you today about how we can actually and practically
Speaker 2: pray without ceasing. First, let's talk about praying anywhere. We
Speaker 2: can pray anywhere because God is everywhere. If we want
Speaker 2: to pray without ceasing, we have to remember that God
Speaker 2: is always with us. Prayer again, is our communication and
Speaker 2: access to God. Right. So it's not like we have
Speaker 2: to be in a prayer clause be at church, or
Speaker 2: we have to follow all these formalities to pray, because
Speaker 2: we can connect with God anywhere because He is everywhere.
Speaker 2: The other day, my son came to me and he said, Mommy,
Speaker 2: if I open my eyes when I pray, can God
Speaker 2: still hear me? And I was so pleased to let
Speaker 2: him know. Yes, even if you pray with your eyes open,
Speaker 2: God can still hear your prayers, because prayer, again, is
Speaker 2: not about the formalities. It's not about where we are.
Speaker 2: It's about where God is and our ability to connect
Speaker 2: with Him everywhere, and He is always with us, which
Speaker 2: means we can always pray. Psalm one thirty nine, verses
Speaker 2: seven through ten says, where can I go from your spirit?
Speaker 2: Or where can I flee from your presence? If I
Speaker 2: ascend to heaven, you are there. If I make my
Speaker 2: bed in hell, behold, you are there. If I take
Speaker 2: the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost
Speaker 2: parts of the sea, even there your hand shall lead me,
Speaker 2: and your right hand shall hold me. The Psalmist understands
Speaker 2: that we can pray anywhere. If you're washing dishes in
Speaker 2: the evening as your family gets ready for bed, if
Speaker 2: you're waiting in the carpool line, if you're stuck in traffic,
Speaker 2: if you're in a hospital bed laying on your back.
Speaker 2: God is there. And if he's there, that means that
Speaker 2: we can pray to him. We can ask him for help,
Speaker 2: we can ask him for guidance. We can just simply
Speaker 2: talk to him and thank him for being him wherever
Speaker 2: we are. Praying without ceasing means praying anywhere. It means
Speaker 2: recognizing that God is always with us, and when we
Speaker 2: have that in the forefront of our minds, that God
Speaker 2: is that friend that's always beside us, never leaving us,
Speaker 2: even if we're walking through the valley of the Shadow
Speaker 2: of Death. That he's with us, and that means we
Speaker 2: can always talk to him. We have someone we can
Speaker 2: always commune with, and that we're never alone when we pray. Next,
Speaker 2: if we want to pray without ceasing, we have to
Speaker 2: remember that we can pray any way. This means that
Speaker 2: we can pray in any circumstance. It doesn't have to
Speaker 2: be in a church, but just the simple fact that
Speaker 2: we don't give up on praying. We talked about this before,
Speaker 2: especially in the second episode of the Teacher Us to
Speaker 2: Pray podcast, where we talked about actually how Jesus teaches
Speaker 2: us to pray and that prayer isn't just about getting
Speaker 2: anything you want, but it's about changing our heart. When
Speaker 2: I say pray it anyway, I mean don't quit on praying.
Speaker 2: We have an entire episode dedicated to why should I
Speaker 2: pray if God already knows. Be sure to go back
Speaker 2: and check out that episode. But essentially, prayer again is
Speaker 2: about us growing up our spiritual muscle. It's about growing
Speaker 2: in our relationship with God. When we feel like we're
Speaker 2: facing a hard situation, an impossible situation, that's not when
Speaker 2: we say, oh, I'm not going to pray now. That's
Speaker 2: when we lean in. That's when we say, oh, I'm
Speaker 2: especially going to pray now. It's reminding ourselves that yes,
Speaker 2: we're weak and we can't do it, but God can
Speaker 2: do anything. When you're in doubt, pray anyway. When you're
Speaker 2: frustrated and you don't know what to do, pray anyway.
Speaker 2: When you want to give up and you want to
Speaker 2: let go, pray any way, don't give up on prayer again.
Speaker 2: Prayer is not about getting what we want. It's about
Speaker 2: changing our hearts in the process. Sometimes we will get
Speaker 2: what we want and sometimes we won't, but we will
Speaker 2: always be changed for the better when we decide to
Speaker 2: not give up on prayer and pray anyway last we
Speaker 2: want to pray about anything. If we want to be
Speaker 2: able to pray continually, we're gonna have to make our
Speaker 2: prayers very natural and conversational with God. And this means
Speaker 2: that we can pray to God about anything. We don't
Speaker 2: have to feel insecure about bringing something to God, one
Speaker 2: because he already knows, and two because there's no condemnation
Speaker 2: in Christ for those who place their faith in him.
Speaker 2: We don't have to feel insecure or like we're not
Speaker 2: good enough to pray. God wants to talk to us.
Speaker 2: He wants us to enter his presence through prayer. He
Speaker 2: wants us to cast our cares on him. The Bible
Speaker 2: tells us to do that. There's nothing too big that
Speaker 2: he can't handle. We need to have the confidence to
Speaker 2: approach his throne with prayer because he can handle whatever
Speaker 2: comes your way. I love Philippians four, verses six and
Speaker 2: seven that says do not worry about anything. Instead pray
Speaker 2: about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him
Speaker 2: for all he has done. Then you will experience God's peace,
Speaker 2: which exceeds anything we can understand. His peace will guard
Speaker 2: your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus. Again,
Speaker 2: I want to reiterate the first part of that verse
Speaker 2: that says don't worry about anything, instead pray about everything everything.
Speaker 2: Sometimes we feel like, oh, this is too small. God
Speaker 2: has bigger issues, bigger things that he can be worried about.
Speaker 2: But God cares even about the seemingly little things to us.
Speaker 2: Because He cares about us, we can't get caught into
Speaker 2: thinking that, oh, this is too big for me to
Speaker 2: pray about, or this is too small for me to
Speaker 2: pray about. The Bible doesn't say only pray about the
Speaker 2: big things, only pray about the small things. It says,
Speaker 2: pray about everything, pray about everything. Listen, If we really
Speaker 2: take this approach to prayer and get real with God
Speaker 2: and pray with Him about everything, we can pray continually
Speaker 2: because trust me, we will not run out of things
Speaker 2: to say. I want to encourage you to keep your
Speaker 2: traditional prayer time. Maybe you pray in the mornings when
Speaker 2: you get up, or maybe you pray in the evenings
Speaker 2: before you go to bed, or maybe you pray in
Speaker 2: the car with your kids is your drive to school.
Speaker 2: Keep those traditional prayer times. But I also want to
Speaker 2: encourage you to have conversational prayer times. Times where you're
Speaker 2: praying and it just wasn't planned. You're in the grocery
Speaker 2: store and you see someone that looks sad, and you
Speaker 2: just say a little prayer for him. Or maybe you
Speaker 2: just got off the phone with your husband and you
Speaker 2: notice a sense of discouragement his voice, so you just
Speaker 2: say a little prayer right there for him. Or maybe
Speaker 2: you're talking to a friend and she's making a very
Speaker 2: important decision and you say, can I just pray with
Speaker 2: you really quickly. I want you to be a little
Speaker 2: more spontaneous with your prayer this week. I want to
Speaker 2: challenge you with that. I want you to get creative
Speaker 2: about praying during times you wouldn't normally think to pray
Speaker 2: in the carpool line. And I want to encourage you
Speaker 2: that listen, it doesn't have to be these long prayers,
Speaker 2: just a quick Oh Lord, bless her, Oh Lord, help
Speaker 2: me make this decision. Oh Holy Spirit, lead me in this.
Speaker 2: Just recognizing that God is with you, that you can
Speaker 2: pray to him anywhere. Because of that, you can pray
Speaker 2: to Him about anything, and that we should pray to
Speaker 2: him any way. Again, when we pray without ceasing. It's
Speaker 2: not about the acts of prayer, but cultivating a heart
Speaker 2: to pray anywhere, any way and about anything. It is
Speaker 2: my hope that today's episode has provided you with insight
Speaker 2: and helpful tips on how you can pray. We have
Speaker 2: so much more to talk about when it comes to prayer,
Speaker 2: so I hope that if you were encouraged by today's episode,
Speaker 2: you'll share it with a friend and subscribe so you
Speaker 2: don't miss any future episodes of the Teach Us to
Speaker 2: Pray podcast or will continue to learn how, just like breathing,
Speaker 2: where can become a natural, consistent, and life giving part
Speaker 2: of our everyday lives. Until then, be sure to connect
Speaker 2: with me at Belovedwomen dot org or download the Beloved
Speaker 2: Women app available from the app and Google play stores,
Speaker 2: and check out the show notes to download my free
Speaker 2: five day Prayer Guy. Thank you so much for taking
Speaker 2: the time to listen today. God bless you and I'll
Speaker 2: talk to you in the next episode.
Speaker 1: Teach Us to Pray is a production of Life Audio
Speaker 1: and the Salem Web Network. If you enjoyed this episode,
Speaker 1: would you take a minute and leave us a review
Speaker 1: in your podcast app? It really does help more people
Speaker 1: like you find the podcast To hear more from Christina Patterson.
Speaker 1: Be sure to check out her fantastic site, Belovedwomen dot Org.
Speaker 1: A special thanks to Kelly Gibbons, Steven Sanders, and Stephen
Speaker 1: McGarvey for their production and editing on this episode. You
Speaker 1: can find more podcasts like this over at lifeaudio dot com.