Unceasing: Community

July 22, 2010 in Prayer/Faith with 5 Comments

Another thought on unceasing prayer.

Community.  If I have a prayer that I’ve been praying, and I’m to pray unceasingly, how do I do this?

Perhaps that’s where community comes in?  If I ask you to pray for me. Maybe you’ll be praying for me in a time where I cease.  Maybe I fell asleep, got caught up in the day to day mess, or maybe I am even just feeling distant from God.

What’s scary is we can throw out the “I’m praying for you.” so easily, on later to be dismissing it, forgetting to, or just not meaning it at all.  This is a pretty big deal.  Praying for someone and not, could be the difference between unceasing and ceasing.  I know that’s a stretch, but my belief is Jesus put a pretty huge focus on community for a reason.  I do believe, with all of my heart, we were called to community, not to talk the controversy, not to talk about the other person is doing wrong, but to support each other, and help each other grow unceasingly.  I believe a big part of this is prayer.

Unceasingly praying is not something that is easy.  It’s not something to take lightly.  It’s not something to dismiss as, “I’m just not good at prayer.” or, “He never listens anyway.”.  It’s something to work towards, unceasingly, until you are there.  And when you fall, work at it again, until you are there again.

Thoughts?

  • http://www.whatsthislifefor.posterous.com PastorT

    It is my true belief that God's timing is perfect and today is no different. The wife and kids went to visit family today while I stayed at Mom's to catch up on some homework. Well, I listened to about 6 hours of lectures today and one of them talked directly about your latest series of posts….by topic anyway.
    The way Dr. Anderson describes unceasing prayer kind of hit me and I wanted to share. He compared it to several scripture references. One of them was Matthew 5:27-30…..Jesus is talking about adultery here the Dr.'s point was that it's not that Jesus thinks we will never have a lustful thought or that we should literally cut our arms off if we do or pluck our eyes out if we look at a woman. He compares this to unceasing prayer where he says that Jesus doesn't expect us to NEVER stop praying, but to live, as I said the other day, in a constant state of awareness. Meaning, seeking Him in our hearts with every thought. That's heavy enough as it is, but I thought it was awesome to have this point in scripture spoke to me from here AND school. I figured there had to be a reason and thus, had to share :-) .

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  • http://www.crucialencounter.com Andy

    Toby,

    This is good stuff. Now. I don't know I agree 100%. I think when Jesus was being extreme, he made it very clear. (IE: cut of your arm, poke out your eyes) While, I don't necessarily think that it's possible to pray 'unceasingly', I'm not 100% sold on that yet. I mean. I'm no theologian, (Thank God) but, there's a tugging at my soul when I feel like I can dismiss this as Jesus being….. tongue and cheek here… (I know that's not the right phrase, but I'm at a lack of words here.) Do I make sense at all? I don't have any references to backup what I'm saying, just a feeling in my heart….

  • http://www.whatsthislifefor.posterous.com PastorT

    No, I know what you're saying…..I think. I feel the same way about these things. We're always taught to take what we read in the Word literally and then we run into things like “lop your arms off” and “put a stick in your eye.” While on one hand, I think the point is clear, the other hand thinks “He surely doesn't want me to cause harm to myself, right?” But then again, Christianity wasn't mean to be comfortable. I don't know that I will ever understand, but again, feel bad for writing it off as one of those things I'm not meant to understand. It's a never ending cycle and I think THAT is the point. Our thoughts and actions to try to get to His level, knowing we never will. We'll never come close, but again, I think that's part of the plan. Cuz ya know us Americans….once we get there, we lose interest.
    Lack of words happens for me too…..can ya tell? :-)

  • JacobC

    Really interesting point. We are all one Body with Christ as head. If each part of the Body prays individually as much as possible, then it stands to reason that the Body as a whole will be praying without ceasing.