Pray continually.
1 Thessalonians 5:17
Smith Wigglesworth once said, “I don’t want to build anything about myself, but it is truly true that if you found me outside of conversation with man, I am in conversation in God. When I first read that, I was struck by the simplicity of it, and the casual manner in which Wigglesworth presents it. It’s such a revolutionary idea, and yet he said it as though he were saying something of no more account than the weather.
And it truly is such a revolutionary idea-- I believe that were we all to truly take 1 Thessalonians 5:17 to heart, we would be amazed at what would result. There are so many beautiful reasons to do so, the first and easiest being the simple fact that it is a command from God, which means that it is a part of God’s perfect plan for us. In fact I don’t believe it is any stretch of logic to state that if you do not pray continually, you’ll never be getting the best of what God has for you.
Secondly, when you’re praying continually, you don’t get caught off guard because you’re always in the Spirit, always ready for what Satan might throw at you. Not only that, but when you constantly pray, pretty much every situation you go into has already been covered in prayer. And I know I don’t even need to tell you guys, but when something is covered in prayer you know that it will always work out better because prayers never come back void.
It might seem like a silly example, but on the day of my senior prom I had a ton to get done, and not much time to do it in, so I prayed for every single things I was going to do that day, and continued praying throughout the day. You see, I am perpetually late and always end up not getting as much done as I had planned. So it was clearly by the grace of God that I not only got everything done with time to spare, but I also was able to pick up my beautiful date on time, and if you know me, you know that the “on time” part doesn’t happen very often. But the beauty is that when we pray God always come through, even if it’s for something that might seem silly.
And the last reason I have for you, though it is by no means the last, is simply how much closer you can grow to God when you spend that much time in communion with Him. As it says in 2 Corinthians 3:18, “And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.” So staying in communion with God and staying in accordance with the Spirit (by being constantly in prayer), also sanctifies us, changing our old sinful nature into a new, Jesus-loving, God-seeking nature, and thus brings us closer to our Lord. After all, your relationship with God is just like any other relationship in that it takes time to grow. But think how well you would get to know someone if you talked to them every second of the day-- I don’t know about you guys, but that’s how well I want to know the Lord, because He’s totally worth it.
