How Can We Practice Praying Without Ceasing?

Prayer is one of the greatest blessings believers enjoy. Through prayer, we can contact the Lord to fellowship with Him in a personal way. 

There are many kinds of prayer mentioned throughout the Bible that we believers can and should practice to sustain our Christian life. In a previous post, we discussed how important it is for us to have dedicated times for prayer in a private place so we can pray without any interruptions. Today, we’ll discuss another kind of prayer using verses and notes from the New Testament Recovery Version.

Paul’s exhortation

The apostle Paul exhorts us to do something seemingly impossible in two verses in the New Testament.

In 1 Timothy 2:8, he says:

“I desire therefore that men pray in every place.”

And 1 Thessalonians 5:17 says:

“Unceasingly pray.”

How is it possible to carry out Paul’s exhortation to pray everywhere and even without ceasing? After all, we have to work, go to school, tend to our children, and take care of a multitude of tasks every day. Did Paul mean we should drop our responsibilities and spend all our time in prayer in some secluded place? Surely not. But Paul also wouldn’t have exhorted the believers to do something that wasn’t possible. 

How can we pray in every place unceasingly?

Physically speaking, the one thing we all do everywhere without ceasing is breathing. No matter where or how busy we are, we’re constantly breathing. We don’t need to go somewhere private or stop our activity to breathe. We’d never say, “I don’t have time to take a breath.” 

Breathing is a good analogy for the kind of prayer Paul is referring to in these two verses. It’s constant, automatic, and life-sustaining.

But practically speaking, how can we pray like this?

In Lamentations 3:55-56, the prophet Jeremiah equates calling on the name of the Lord to breathing. He says: 

“I called upon Your name, O Jehovah, from the lowest pit. You have heard my voice; do not hide Your ear at my breathing, at my cry.” 

The simplest prayer we can utter is calling on the Lord’s name: “Oh, Lord Jesus!” We can call audibly or silently, wherever we are. We can also pray short prayers like, “Lord Jesus, I need You. Be my patience right now.”

Persevering to pray without ceasing

Of course, physical breathing is something we do naturally and automatically. But praying without ceasing takes some exercise on our part.

In the New Testament Recovery Version, note 1 on 1 Thessalonians 5:17 explains what it means to pray unceasingly:

“This is to have uninterrupted fellowship with God in our spirit. It requires perseverance (Rom. 12:12; Col 4:2) with a strong spirit (Eph. 6:18).”

 Romans 12:12, which is cited in the note above, says:

“Rejoice in hope; endure in tribulation; persevere in prayer.”

We’d all like to experience having uninterrupted fellowship with God in our spirit. But we need to realize that this takes perseverance. 

Day by day, we need to build up a habit of praying without ceasing. Any habit requires time and perseverance, and this is no different. 

Each day is full of new opportunities to exercise our spirit to call on the Lord, regardless of where we are or what we’re doing. We can call on Him while we’re driving, taking a test, working, or doing mundane chores. And we can also practice praying short prayers as we go about our day.

As we learn to persevere in prayer, practicing to call on the name of the Lord Jesus more often and at all times and places, this spiritual breathing will become more spontaneous and regular throughout our day.

Eventually, we’ll begin to pray in every place without ceasing. We hope you’ll be encouraged and strengthened in your prayer life by reading some of our other posts on prayer. And if you live in the US, you can order a free copy of the New Testament Recovery Version to read more notes on the verses we cited in this post.