Last week we started our new series on Spiritual Lifehacks. I gave an example of a physical lifehack showing how to make external phone speakers out of a toilet paper tube and two plastic cups. This week I want to share something a little different.
How many of you like to listen to music when you’re studying or doing something else that requires concentration? I’m the same way. But, if you’re like me, when a really good song comes on you’re no longer studying or concentrating on what you’re doing, but singing and dancing and getting into the music, right?
That can be a problem, especially if you’re studying for a test the next day! You’ll get to class and all you can remember is the lyrics to that one song instead of what you were supposed to be studying! When you find yourself writing, “God’s not dead, He’s surely alive” as the answer to a math problem, you just might need to find a better way to study!
Thankfully, there is a solution, and it all hinges on the type of music you listen to while you’re studying! Believe it or not, video game music -- especially stuff from older games like Super Mario and Zelda -- are excellent to use while studying! Don’t believe me? Let’s think about it for a minute…
What are you doing with your hands when you play a video game? Working the controller, right, but what does that look like to someone who’s never seen that game before? You’re pressing buttons in specific, complicated combinations in order to perform tasks on the screen. What makes it even more complicated is that buttons can do more than one thing -- sometimes it’s “Fire weapon”, other times it’s “Use item”. But when you’re playing, you know exactly what to do, despite the fact that you’ve never really “studied” for the game. Why is that?
It’s the music. Video game music is specifically designed to entertain while making it easier to concentrate. If the background music in a game is distracting, the game won’t be any fun. Modern games often just use popular music, but older games like the Mario, Zelda, Metroid, and Metal Gear series all use specially designed music. Try studying with video game music instead, and see how much it helps!
Like listening to the proper music while studying, what you do while you go throughout your day is also important. Tonight’s spiritual lifehack is Continuous Prayer. First Thessalonians 5:16-17 says, “Be joyful always; 17pray continually;”. It’s interesting how Paul puts that. He tells you to “Be joyful always” first, then he tells you to “pray continually”. He does this for a reason -- first he tells you what to do, then he tells you how to do it.
But praying continually can’t mean to be constantly speak to God, or be on your knees with your head bowed and your eyes closed 24x7, right? After all, just last week we learned that spending every moment with God goes against scripture. If that’s the case, what does it mean to pray continually?
To understand that, first we need to truly understand prayer. We’ve all heard that prayer is just a conversation between us and God, right? Like any conversation, there are times when we speak and times when we listen. That’s pretty easy to understand, at least on the surface. But let’s compare prayer to other types of conversations we have on a regular basis.
I want you guys to think of your “favorite person”. It could be a brother or sister, a parent, a friend, anyone you like. Keep that person in your mind while you ask yourself this: do you talk to this person in the same way every time you have a conversation with them? In other words, do you always use the same words, in the same tone, with the same emotions, etc?
Of course not! Sometimes you have bad days and you bite their head off at the slightest provocation. Other times you just want to hang out all day. Sometimes both of those things happen in the same conversation. This is what we call a “voice”. You also don’t always speak to this person either, right? Sometimes you text, email, snap, tweet, Instagram, whatever. Regardless, your conversation with this person can and does take many different forms and voices.
When you communicate with your favorite person, you tell them about your good times and your bad times, exciting events and boring days, if you’re facing a major decision or if you just found out that you’re going on vacation in a few weeks! We share life’s big and little events to people we trust and care about because that is how a relationship is built. As a result, the trust and care we have for this person continually grows and grows.
Why, then, do we act like speaking to God is any different? Our relationship with God can and should be the most important one we have, but in order for that to happen, a relationship has to start. Like with your favorite person, you have to communicate in order to form that relationship -- and communication with God starts with prayer. Praying continuously, then, is really nothing more than making sure that you’re letting God know what is going on in your life.
Let’s pause here for a moment. Why do we need to let God know what’s going on in our life if He’s God? God’s all-knowing, right? He knows already what’s going on!
This is true. However, God values a relationship with us, but is is respectful enough that He will rarely interfere unless specifically asked. We don’t pray to let God know what is going on in our life because he’s unaware, we pray to make sure He is aware that we want Him to know what’s going on in our lives. It all comes down to relationship. If we desire a relationship with God, then we will be willing to share everything that happens with Him -- good, bad, and indifferent.
So, this still doesn’t really answer the question, “How do you pray continuously?”, does it? Well, here you go. Even though praying continuously means that you let God know what’s going on in your life, it doesn’t mean that you need to send Him a spiritual text message every 5 minutes! If you do that, it’s no longer a conversation between you and God, but just you giving God a speech.
Being in constant prayer with God, in its simplest form, just means that you’re constantly listening for Him to speak. If you have a decision to make, you ask for help, sure. If you’re feeling frustrated or angry with what’s happened, let him know by all means! If you’re having a wonderful day and you can’t wait to tell someone about it, start with God -- He’d love to hear it!
After all, it’s what Paul did. First Thessalonians 1:2-3, “We always thank God for all of you, mentioning you in our prayers. 3We continually remember before our God and Father your work produced by faith, your labor prompted by love, and your endurance inspired by hope in our Lord Jesus Christ.” Just a few verses later, in First Thessalonians 2:13, Paul adds, “And we also thank God continually because, when you received the word of God, which you heard from us, you accepted it not as the word of men, but as it actually is, the word of God, which is at work in you who believe.” In Romans 1:9-10, Paul is constantly praying for other people and praying that he can visit them soon, “God, whom I serve with my whole heart in preaching the gospel of his Son, is my witness how constantly I remember you 10in my prayers at all times; and I pray that now at last by God’s will the way may be opened for me to come to you.” In Ephesians 6:18, Paul gets a little more specific, “And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the saints.” Pray on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. That doesn’t seem like God much cares when we pray, so long as we do.
Paul also mentions continuous prayer in 2 Timothy 1:3, “I think God, whom I serve, as my forefathers did, with a clear conscience, as night and day I constantly remember you in my prayers.” Night and day. Sounds continuous to me!
OK, but what does Jesus say about it? If you look up continuous prayer, you won’t find that Jesus said that. No, He was too subtle for that -- remember that He always spoke in parables? What He did say, though, is interesting -- turn to Matthew 26:41, “Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the body is weak.” Also, in Luke 22:40, He says, “On reaching the place, he said to them, “Pray that you will not fall into temptation.”
Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation. Pray that you will not fall into temptation. I’m seeing a common theme, here: we are a fallen people, we are constantly being tempted into sin everywhere we go and with everything we do. Jesus knew this -- after all, He was human too -- so He gave us all advice on how to resist temptation: watch and pray.
First Corinthians 10:13 says, “No temptation has seized you except what is common to man. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can stand up under it.” In the Greek, though, it doesn’t say “when you are tempted”, though, it says, “with the temptation”. “When” implies something that can come and go, but “with” makes us realize that it’s a part of life; that temptation will come, there is no getting around that or avoiding it -- temptation is constant. So, if Jesus says multiple times that we should pray to avoid temptation, and if temptation is constant, then doesn’t that mean that prayer should also be constant?
Changing the music you listen to while studying has shown to help you retain the information you read. All you’ve done is change what you’re listening to in the background, and all of a sudden, things get better. Likewise, if you change what you’re heart is listening to in the background of your life, things will get better. You will have that close relationship with God, you will hear His voice and understand His character in ways you were never able to before. You will be in constant prayer, but you won’t be constantly speaking. When you establish a rhythm of time spent with God alone, and time spent with other people, you start the relationship. You continue that relationship through constant communication -- in both directions -- with God through prayer.
