How long does church service last on Sundays? One, two hours? Let’s say that we’re awake 16 hours a day – that’s 112 hours per week. We’re basically at church for less than 2% of the week. Let’s say we make a mid-week meeting or bible study – that pushes our “spiritual time” up to 4% or 5% of our week (assuming during these times you actually draw near to Christ). Can such a small part of our week satisfy our spiritual needs?
Let’s imagine that we did the same thing to our bodies. Suppose you ate a huge meal on Sunday morning – three combo meals from McDonald’s, for example. What’s going to happen? The human body was not made to eat once a week, and the human spirit was not made to be in touch with God only once a week, either. That’s why God’s word says to "pray without ceasing" (1Th 5:17).
There’s so much debate over what it means to “pray without ceasing.” People take it to extremes and say that we should ask God before every single move we make… whether we should wear a black or blue tie today, and whether we should order the eggs and bacon or the pancakes. Although I think it’s an error to make that kind of doctrine from only three words of scripture, I have respect for people who believe this and even more for those who practice it! Although we disagree on the specifics, I think we can all agree on the fact that at the least it implies that we need to keep in touch with God more frequently than on Sundays!
The Lord Jesus was so in touch with God that He suffered the torments of Hell on the cross when separated from Him for just a few hours. “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me!?” (Mark 15:34). That’s how in touch and bonded our Lord was with His Father. Should we (who are also sons and daughters) be satisfied to be out of touch with God for that long? We should not.
Praying without ceasing doesn’t mean we need to start out the day with six hours of prayer. Let that burden be lifted from you - God nowhere in the bible commands you to start out each day with hours of prayer. A person can do that and still ‘cease’ after the sixth hour and not talk to God again until the next day. Is this person spiritual? Perhaps… but that one might do much better to communicate with God throughout the day than to “stop communication” with God until tomorrow comes! Practice the presence of God.
Set yourself to offer up frequent shorter prayers to God. They don’t have to be an hour, twenty minutes, or even five minutes. Even thirty seconds or a minute frequently throughout the day is great. Think about God often and give thanks, praising Him constantly (Php 4:6). Tell God what’s on your heart. It may be hard to remember to do this, but if you have a hunger for God then it should be easy! If you think about Him all the time then you’ll pray to Him all the time.
“The desire is thy prayers; and if thy desire is without ceasing, thy prayer will also be without ceasing. The continuance of your longing is the continuance of your prayer.” - Augustine
The issue is HUNGER. You’ve got to hunger after God! If your hunger never ceases, your prayer won’t cease. If your hunger ceases, your prayer will cease. Ask the Lord to put a continual hunger in your heart for Him. Then you won’t have to fight yourself to do it, prayer will just flow out of you as a loving bride who longs to talk with her husband.