"Never stop praying." 1 Thessalonians 5:17, NLT

At one of my previous churches, I was blessed to have a retired pastor named Paul in our congregation.  Though he had retired from the profession of ministry, he never stopped ministering.  He had a way of coming close to people with a listening ear, but more than that, he did so with a heart that was instant in prayer.  It was common to see him in the church hallway or out by the front entrance engaging conversation with guests or members one minute and then bowing with them in prayer the next minute.  Paul felt like the conversations and stories he drew out from others were conversations and stories he could draw God into through prayer.  Why?  Because for him prayer never stopped.  When Paul found himself connecting with people, it was natural for his heart of unceasing prayer to connect those people to the God he was already holding communion with.

Maybe you've read the words of 1 Thessalonians 5:17 with a sense of disbelief or impracticality.  How can I "pray without ceasing" (NKJV) if I've got appointments to keep and deadlines to make?  No, we're not called to remain on our knees in prayer 24/7, but we are invited to sustain unbroken connection with the God who never leaves us or forsakes us (cf. Heb. 13:5).  In other words, if prayer is "the opening of the heart to God as to a friend" (Steps to Christ, 93), then the exhortation to "never stop praying" in 1 Thessalonians 5:17 is simply an invitation to never hang up on God, to keep our hearts wide open to God all day, everyday.

And when we engage that kind of consistent connection with God, we will begin to experience consistent joy and gratitude even when the circumstances of life are highly inconsistent.  When we look at the context of that one-line call to unceasing prayer, it's sandwiched by an appeal to "always be joyful" (1 Thes. 5:16) and "be thankful in all circumstances" (1 Thes. 5:18).  

In other words, unceasing prayer goes hand-in-hand with unceasing joy and gratitude no matter life's ups or downs.  

The invitation to pray always is an invitation to discover a life full of rejoicing in Jesus.

And that's an invitation for all of us, not just retired pastors like Paul.  The more I observed Paul connecting with people and connecting with them in prayer, I began to notice that others caught on.  Other members began to realize that they didn't have to just settle for telling their friends, "I'll pray about that," but instead they, like Paul, took the opportunity to say "Let's pray about that right now."  Conversation with God was becoming more continuous for them too.

Friends, we can all step into this experience of unceasing communion with God, the continual opening of our hearts to our faithful Father -- personally, in our homes, in our church family.  Maybe that shows up in our social interactions like it did for my friend Paul.  Or maybe it shows up more in our own hearts as we more readily take everything to God in prayer.  Whatever the outward expression, may that connection between our hearts and God steadily grow and lead us -- in our personal lives, our homes, and in our church -- to experience a life of sustained joy and gratitude.