(1 Thessalonians 5:17)…Among other commands in this passage we are commanded to always have the lines of communication open to God. I’ve always thought that I’m pretty regular with that. Jesus on the other-hand always expanded on the commands we are given. It’s pretty evident that Jesus always had a direct line of communication open with God the Father, but that wasn’t all. We can read of many accounts where Jesus got away from the people around him to go and be alone with the Father. This just goes to show that we can’t simply just leave our prayer where this verse is leading us, it continues beyond that.
There is still always the question though of what it really means to pray continually. As I’ve had it explained to me time-and-again, it’s a matter of being in constant communication with God, with no special time or place needed to just talk to Him. It can be thoughts directed towards Him, actual verbal communication, but there is nothing special or secret about it. The amazing thing is that God is always there, for every one of us, to listen to us. That’s also what makes it so astonishing that so many of believers have such a hard time with prayer. We think that there is some secret to it, some special time or place we have to be, but that simply isn’t the case. God is always there to lend us an ear, even two! 😉
Even though I’ve worked to follow this for many years I still have days where I forget. And it’s simply not enough to just bring requests to God either. There needs to be some praise and thanksgiving there as well for all that He does. Am I thanking God first when something good comes my way at work? Keeping God first in mind at work is always the hardest challenge for me. That’s where I need to continue to work.
