Praying Without Ceasing: Finding God in the Everyday

Editor’s note – Daryl Wilson writes like a man thinking out loud before God, asking an old question with fresh urgency: what does it mean to pray without ceasing in a culture starved for meaning? We’re running this reflection because its core instinct holds true – prayer was never meant to live only inside a morning routine or a quiet Sunday pew.

When do we pray?

Is it proper to pray in the morning? In the evening? Both morning and evening? Pray along in church? At mealtimes, to give thanks and bless the bread? These would all seem proper. But I say this out of convention, tradition, personal practice and what I understand of Christ’s teaching, which has come down in the Book, in the truth of my faith understanding. As individual believers, we go into our heart for what is true, in our understanding of the Scriptures there.

I make sure to pray in the morning as one of the first things of the day, and then in afternoon or evening. This cycle seems right to me. If I can find a way to pray outdoors, that is best. And if I forget, if I do not put the things of God first, what is my sin and what does God tell me? Is it just another of many openings for the Devil to get in?

Christ himself taught the Lord’s Prayer and so this would seem to be good and proper to say often. Jesus seemed to be talking about what is in our hearts: finding this out, straightening it and offering it to God.

Christ went alone, frequently to “lonely places”, to commune with the Father. The apostles and, later, early Christians “prayed constantly” up until the time when Constantine made Christianity the religion of the empire, created the “Church” and codified conduct.

But teasing out history and what became of Christ’s movement later is not my goal here.

Editor’s note – Scripture doesn’t give us a fixed prayer schedule, but it does call believers to pray without ceasing (1 Thessalonians 5:17). Daryl Wilson’s instinct here is sound.

Seeking God’s Word for Today

My goal is to seek God’s revealed Word and to breathe life into it so that I may breathe life into others, through Christ.

So what is proper, and who is in charge of proper prayer, religion, and Christian conduct?

An Age of Decision

We live in an age of decision, an epoch of change in religious life. The kingdom has come near, once again.

The secular world, technological feats and the wonders of the age have failed to give enough meaning for people to go on, of course.

The question is once again on everyone’s lips: where do we look to see Him? Even people who do not know what they are looking for seek Him. “What is next for His people?” They ask. “Where is saving grace?” Just like in the time of Christ, the people ask these things.

In this, our time, we have the capability to create our lives anew. Or to destroy ourselves in the web of illusions.

Editor’s note – Comfort and technology have multiplied our options, but they’ve never answered the question that matters most. Where do we look to see Him?

The Potential of Belief

In the modern west, freedom of religion allows us to change or transform life as we believe, even to give up our former life completely.

Total transformation is possible. For this work, there can be no constraints on how, when or why we pray.

It is time for Christ to take hold of the generation once again, not that He ever stopped doing this. Believers are to walk with Him, once again continually praying, giving thanks to the unseen (and seen) Father and His teachings at each moment of each day.

To see God’s Kingdom laid out before us, to look for and perceive God’s work in ourselves, and to every person is to reenter the garden of God’s grace.

Thou shalt keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed upon him. [Isaiah 26:3]

To be as close as we can to His Word while living each moment in His “pageant of the everyday” is to open our eyes to the “potential of belief” which will set us aright, and set us alight, as individuals and as a people, toward forgiveness, strength, wisdom and courage.

A Word from the Editor
Prayer was never meant to live only in a morning routine. Paul’s charge to pray without ceasing (1 Thessalonians 5:17) describes a life turned toward God at every hour – the invitation Daryl Wilson is reaching for here.

Editor Comment: Daryl Wilson's call to make every moment an act of prayer is a timely reminder that genuine faith is lived, not merely scheduled.