The apostle Paul says, “pray without ceasing,” (1 Thessalonians 5:17). But does he mean that we must pray all the time? Not at all. Paul was talking to the people of Thessalonica. It was one of the first places for Paul and Silas to evangelise. Paul had great success there—not only with the Jews; but also among the God-fearing Greeks. Of course, the Jews who did not believe and those who were envious, hired thugs to attack him. As a result, Paul and Silas left Thessalonica.
What Paul meant by “praying without ceasing” is to encourage the Thessalonians to maintain a faithful prayer life as his own. Praying without ceasing does not mean to pray constantly; but to be consistent and persistent in our prayer life. Paul in this epistle gives us an intimate introduction of how he mentored young believers. In fact, he explains briefly many of the basic Christians doctrines in 1 Thessalonians. These include the doctrine of Trinity, the deity of Jesus, the power of the Holy Spirit, the nature of Scripture, the timing and events of the Second Coming and much more.
Finding time to pray and ask God to open our minds and hearts to best understand the Scriptures is important. We need to understand why we need to be assured of our salvation, conversion, resurrection and more as we live out our Christian life. But from sunrise to sunset our lives are filled with events and activities that have a beginning and ending. Also events follow one another and at times happen at the same time or period. Even when we fall asleep, things happen, the earth revolves around the sun and the moon around the earth. The systems and organs in our bodies work and thoughts and ideas cross our mind and consciousness.
So whether we attend school or university; or work at home or not; our mind and consciousness are constantly active. We are all busy in some form. If we are not paying attention to what we do or what comes to the fore of our mind, there will be some activities that are important to us we would forget to do. Prayer is one of those. So it is best we plan so we can use our days and times effectively.
Therefore, let us put prayer into our plan and schedule—after all, God our Creator sustains all life and systems on earth, It is Him to whom our prayers are directed for support, worship, guidance, and thanks. We must not be too busy to pray. Let us not take God for granted. Those who say “there is no God,” they take Him for granted; but He has a message for them: “The fool has said in his heart, There is no God.” They are corrupt.” (Psalm 14:1, NKJV).