Pray Without Ceasing!

(Ephesians 6:18) “Praying at all times in the Spirit.”

Now that we are fully dressed and really for battle, considering that this is not a normal battle, but a spiritual one, we as soldiers do not have to run aggressively like hero’s into the frontlines wanting to take off the enemies head. His head has already been removed; the Lord Jesus our King has already defeated the enemy on Calvary’s cross. Whilst on the cross He cried out, “it is finished.” That is why we are not called to find justification in our own fighting abilities, we are clearly told to stand; “Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand firm.” We must get to our feet on the back of Christ’s victory and by faith believe in His finished work. Come what may, faith will keep us on our feet, so that we may stand to His glory and may our God receive all the glory when we are made to stand. Yet while we stand our minds and our lips must contentedly be in prayer, which will help us stand. “Praying at all times in the Spirit.” Remembering the last item of armour we now wield in our hand, the sword of the spirit which is the word of God. Scriptures argument are the most powerful of weapons when repelling temptation, remember it was the word that Satan used to try and lure Jesus into sin but it was the word that Jesus used to repel sin and temptation. I will remind us to always view scripture in context, when we do not look to its context we can easily get mislead and believe it to mean something when in actual fact it has nothing to do with what we want it to say. This is one of the devils master weapons. How can I make such a bold statement? Remember in the Garden of Eden he twisted God’s words to get Eve to fall in sin. He tried the same tactic some four thousand years later with the Lord Jesus; you can read the account in Matthew chapter 4. Today I believe he uses this weapon at will and lures many into his trap of deceit. Let me use an example to illustrate this point, Matthew 6:33 is often quote like this; But seek first the kingdom of God, and all these things will be added to you. In other words when we want goodies for ourselves, wealth and blessings can be ours because all these things are available to us, all we need to do is just believe. All that now does for our flesh is get us to believe a lie and we force blessing into our lives, I will even goes as far to say that we may even be blessed but from which source have we been blessed? Is it from God or has the devil lured us to mislead us into his trap of deception, it is often the latter. Let have a look at it in context; “But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.”

Do you see the difference? We must first seek God and His righteousness, in other words our lives must revolve around His righteousness and when that happens we can now believe his promise because we have contextually applied this verse to our lives. We have aligned our wills with His. It is no longer about what we want but about what He requires from us and that is to pursue His righteousness and when obedience is tried and proved we will reap the reward of his promise, and in this portion of scripture the reward is food and clothing. Therefore we must be “right” in understanding before we will be “right” in application. “So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.” In other words if we want faith to rule our live we must pay careful attention to the word of God. We must learn to be skilled with this sword we now brandish in our hand. Now with that understood we can buckle all the rest of our armour with prayer. “We must join prayer with all these graces, for our defence against these spiritual enemies, imploring help and assistance of God, as the case requires: and we must pray always.” Not as though we should to do nothing else but pray, for there are many other duties of Christianity and of our respective stations in the world that are to be done in their place and season; “but we should keep up constant times of prayer, and be constant to them. We must pray upon all occasions, and as often as our own and others' necessities call us to it.” However even when we are busy with other Christian activities and even our secular lives, work and all its chores must still always be done with prayer as their driver. I believe there is a time and a season for all things, but prayer is not seasonal and must be a constant appendage to our daily lives regardless of the season. (1Thessolonians 5:17) “Pray without ceasing.”

How I love the brilliance of God’s wisdom in and through his Word, our instructional manual for life, if only we would lean to use it as if our life on a daily basis depended upon it, which it does, how skilled we would be in declaring His righteousness to the world. How we would free our kin in Christ who have been mislead by the wiles of the wicked one, even the devil as they chase goodies that moth and rust will destroy, instead of His righteousness which will leave us with gold, silver and precious stones for all eternity where moth and rust cannot destroy.

Be merciful to us our great God the Holy Spirit admonish God’s children I pray, begin with me, may our great God and Father and His great Son our glorious Saviour be exalted on earth as it is in heaven and even beyond our wildest imaginations.

May we stand dressed smartly in our armour which God has equipped us with having it buckled with prayer throughout today remembering that we need only find grace for today and we are not called to worry about tomorrow as tomorrow will take care of itself. Remember you brothers in Christ today and prayer for someone you have never prayed for before, it is good to sometimes take our eyes of ourselves and be thoughtful of others, and there is always someone in greater need and under superior trial. May we find grace to love our brethren as we lay down our lives one for another.

Signing off

Tyrone