pray without ceasing,
Truth to Learn
Our prayer life is to be a continual part of our walk with God.
Behind the Words
“Pray” is translated from the Greek verb proseuchomai. This word is made up of pros, meaning “to or toward” and euchomai, which literally means “to speak out” or “to express a wish.” Therefore, proseuchomai means “to express a wish to someone” or “to speak out to someone.” In virtually every occurrence of this verb in the New Testament, the person being spoken to is God. The verb is expressed here in the imperative mood, expressing a command.
The words “without ceasing” are from the Greek adverb adialeiptōs, which is made up of a, meaning “without” and a form of the verb dialeipō, meaning “to interrupt” or “to leave a gap.” Thus, adialeiptōs literally means “without interruption.” In common usage, however, it means “constantly recurring” not “continuously occurring.” This word was used by Greeks to describe a cough that would not go away. They were not referring to a constant cough, but a persistent one.
Meaning Explained
Paul has switched his teaching from that of how we are to interact with others in the church to how we are to conduct our own personal Christian life. Verses sixteen, seventeen, and eighteen deal primarily with attitudes, while verses nineteen through twenty-two deal primarily with actions. In yesterday’s verse we learned that we are to have an attitude of rejoicing within our spirit at all times. Today, Paul focuses on our attitude of prayer.
As in yesterday’s verse, today’s verse is a command given to us by God. We are to pray unceasingly. There are two ways of interpreting this command. The first is a literal interpretation, in which we are to pray without interruption. This could be called our attitude of prayer. In other words, from the moment we wake in the morning until we fall asleep at night, we are to have an awareness of and communion with God. The other interpretation could be called our persistence in prayer. In other words, we are to be repeatedly communicating with God throughout each day.
Let’s look at Jesus as our example. As the second person of the Godhead, He was constantly aware of God the Father and God the Spirit. However, we find that there were times when He stopped praying. For instance, in Luke 11:1 it says of Jesus, “Now it came to pass, as He was praying in a certain place, when He ceased, that one of His disciples said to Him …” Jesus stopped praying long enough to teach His disciples how to pray. Another aspect of praying persistently is given to us in Luke 18:1-5. In these verses Jesus is teaching the importance of repeatedly making our requests known to God, without giving up.
As a final note on prayer, keep in mind the advice a wise Christian gave me when I was a new believer. He said, “It is better to pray short in public and long in private.”
Application
Prayer – talking with God – is a foundation stone of our walk with Him through our life on earth. We are to have a constant attitude of prayer and we are to be continually talking to Him. And, we need to listen while we are talking.
In God's service, for His glory,
Copyright © 2012 Will Krause. All rights reserved