I don't mind moving on to this, so lets talk about praying all the time. Does pray without ceasing mean that in some way we should be in prayer every moment of the day ? Or does it mean that when we ask we should not give up on what we are asking for as God wants our asking and according to the Luke 18 parable our continual asking moves God to answer ?Hats Off wrote:How about just praying and continuing instant in prayer. One of our hymns has the line "Prayer is the burden of a sign, unuttered or expressed." We can hardly go wrong in praying sincerely, finishing with "not my will, but yours be done."
We know Jesus said we should pray in private (go to your closet) and He also would go away into the mountains to pray alone with the Father. So, was He also praying moment by moment somehow as He went about His daily life ?
I have heard it said that a woman should keep her head covered so she can always be in a state of prayer. Then this would mean a man should be in this same state with his head uncovered, right ? And I'm not trying to open up the head covering debate again.
And what is being 'instant in prayer' ? Is praying without ceasing a proof of our faith in God that He answers prayer and we won't just give up and take things into our own hands ? I think prayer and faith are strongly related and 'waiting on the Lord' is literally to wait in confident expectation that God will answer our prayers. Actually when scripture asks “I tell you that he will avenge them speedily. Nevertheless when the Son of man cometh, shall he find faith on the earth?” (Luke 18:8) this text is talking about the link of prayer and faith.
Seems to me, prayer today, in what I see, is no longer a travailing for lost souls and a crying out for God in a form of supplication/begging as it was in my youth. I wonder if this is mainly a trend to think we can get along pretty well without bothering God through prayer. I am guilty of this in my own prayer life.
Well, that might get the subject more on the need for prayer.