Prayers for the Week: Pray Without Ceasing

1Thessalonians 5:16-22 (ESV)

¹⁶Rejoice always, ¹⁷pray without ceasing, ¹⁸give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. ¹⁹Do not quench the Spirit. ²⁰Do not despise prophecies, ²¹but test everything; hold fast what is good. ²²Abstain from every form of evil.’

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Hello everyone, and welcome to this week’s Prayers for the Week post. Today we are talking about prayer — specifically, the commands given to us in 1 Thessalonians 5:16-22. As you can see, we are commanded to rejoice always, to pray without ceasing, to give thanks in all circumstances, and so on.

How are we to pray without ceasing?

As you all know, there are many things wrong with this world. This week, we learned of a gunman killing twelve people in Virginia Beach. We have the never ending saga of politics weighing us down. We’ve got anger, hatred, bitterness, apathy, and a whole host of other things happening on a daily basis. So how are we to pray without ceasing?

To me, the command to pray without ceasing should be an easy one to fulfill, especially in the midst of all of the chaos that is this world. As our world spirals more and more out of control, there comes a time when all that is left to us in my opinion is our relationship with God. The worse it is, the easier it is for me to turn to Him for Comfort, for Peace, for Strength, because I know that He has our backs. Remember Jeremiah 29:11.

‘¹¹For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord , plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.’

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If you have studied that chapter, you know that God told His chosen people that they were going to be in exile for 70 years; so while God knows the plans He has for us, and they are good plans — scratch that, they are great plans — they are not going to be fulfilled on our timeline, they are going to be fulfilled on His.

So, how do we pray without ceasing? We do so gladly because we know that God is there for us, and that He wants what is best for us. Praying may seem like a small thing, and many say that praying isn’t enough, that you need to have action with it — and maybe that’s true, and maybe that’s not. I’m not smart enough to know for certain the answer to that. What I do know, though, is that God tells us to pray without ceasing, and to rejoice always, and to abstain from all forms of evil, so that’s what I’m going to do. Please join me in doing the same thing, starting with praying for our prayer requests and celebrating our praises below.

Prayer Requests & Praises

• Sheila has an update on her co-worker who is battling breast cancer. Here is what she wrote: “Update: my coworker and friend did not end up having surgery because they found cancer in her nodules by her breast. Instead they have started a plan of chemotherapy first then surgery then radiation. She had her first chemo on Wednesday and was back at work on Thursday. She said she thinks it’s because all of her prayer warriors. So please keep praying!“
• Jason’s sister-in-law had surgery on the 29th for colon cancer. Here’s an update on her status, please keep praying! “Update: there was more in there than they thought.
  She said they took out the cancerous lymphnodes and took a bunch of scans and samples to see if they can find anymore but the chemo should get rid of anything else in there. Liver and kidneys are clear and they took a scan of her lungs to check as well. Chemo in about a month for maybe 6 months depending on what the samples show.“
• Vickie has a prayer request: “Asking for prayer for me. I came home yesterday with a rash covering me. Took an antihistamine and it is stuck in my throat. I have a haital hernia and nothing is going down, not even spit. No insurance so just hoping it will dislodge. Been 12 hours and I’m tired. Rash is gone.“
• Richard has a prayer request for a friend of his: “I have a friend of mine that I have known for 29 years that has cancer. It has really hit him fast and hard. He needs all the prayers he can get. Please pray for healing.“
• Pat asks for prayers for the family of Mark “TJ” Phongsavanh. Mark was involved in a pool accident over the Memorial Day weekend and passed away. He was 6 years old. Please pray for his family, for God’s Comfort, Strength, Peace, and Love to surround them all in their time of grief.
• Please pray for the families of the twelve employees that were killed in Virginia Beach on Friday. Please pray for God’s Peace, Comfort, Strength, and Love to surround them all, to hold them tight, to help them in their grief. I don’t even begin to understand why someone would or could do that, and I know that there are all sorts of voices clamoring for gun control laws and so forth. I don’t see another law in a nation of thousands of laws making a bit of difference here, but what do I know. What I know is that things like this tragedy, really make me believe all that the Bible tells us is true. Look at 1Peter5:8 and tell me that this wasn’t the case in Virginia Beach: “⁸Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.“
• Franklin Graham, son of Billy Graham, asks us all to pray for President Trump today. Please lift him up in prayer. Pray for him regardless of whether you voted for him or not. Our government is put in place by God, and we are called to pray for our leaders, regardless of which side of the polical isle they are on. So pray for him today and every day, and I’ll join you in praying for all of our leaders in government as well.
• Lastly, I leave you with a bit of hope to all believers. In the end, despite all of the trouble, all the turmoil, all the tribulation, despite it all, in the end, God wins. Remember that, and take comfort in that.

The Lord’s Prayer

Our Father, who art in Heaven
Hallowed be Thy Name.
Thy Kingdom come, Thy Will be done
On earth as it is in Heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread,
And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us.
Lead us not in temptation, but deliver us from evil.
For Thine is the Kingdom, and Power, and Glory
Forever and ever.
Amen.

The Lord’s Prayer

As always, we welcome your prayer requests, your praises, and your comments. Do you have a prayer request for us? You can leave it below in the comments and we will be sure and pray for you. Thank you for stopping by and praying with us today. May the Lord give you His Peace in our troubled world, today and every day.

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