Pray without ceasing
- 1 Thessalonians 5:17

This is from a daily devotional which was quoted at one of our services recently. I promised that it would be printed in this issue as a number of the congregation wanted it.

If you're diligent about keeping other commitments but think you can cancel your daily prayer time at a moment's notice it says:

A) Your love for Christ has grown cold.
B) You believe you can handle life on your own except for emergencies.
C) You're insensitive to the fact that God longs to spend time with you.

"But I'm so busy!" That's the lamest excuse you can offer. How you spend your time reveals what's important to you! The truth is, if you don't pray it's because you don't realize its potential, or you're unaware of the condition of your heart.

John Wesley said, "God does nothing except in answer to prayer." If you don't pray, the best thing that can happen, is nothing. Prayer puts the situation into God's hands, otherwise whose hand is it in? Yours? That's a scary thought!
Paul says, "Pray without ceasing." You can pray anywhere, anytime, about anything. Your prayers can be verbal or silent, long or short, public or private. "Pray without ceasing" just means to be in conscious contact with God at all times. Does your prayer life need a tune-up?

Answer these three questions:

1) How often do I pray? If you can't remember when you last spent time in prayer, you're living undirected, uncorrected and unprotected.

2) How's my sincerity? More liturgy than life? That's because you don't know enough about who you're talking to, or how He feels about you.

3) How's my faith level? Do you wonder if prayer really changes anything? After all, if God decides everything, why bother? Why? Because prayer isn't just for God's benefit - it's for yours!