PRAY WITHOUT CEASING
DRAPER’S PAPER ROUTE
PRAY WITHOUT CEASING
by Adam Carroll Draper
Some of the things God wants us to do seem impossible. Remember when Jesus told Peter to keep on forgiving people (seventy times seven)? Or how about when he said to turn the other cheek if someone hits you, inviting them (in effect) to hit you again? One of my theological friends will correct me if I am wrong, but I think it was Rudolf Bultmann who said that the Lord taught us an impossible ethic to draw attention to grace. Because I grew up around Christians, I know that I just offended some by referring to Bultmann and others by over-simplifying his point (or missing it entirely). To the offended: forgive me for writing anything at all, but I am going to move along now. This is actually about prayer.
What?
In 1 Thessalonians 5:17, St. Paul said to “Pray without ceasing.” That is not the only time he said it. In Ephesians 6:18, when he instructed to take on the full armor of God, he said that this Spiritual warfare involves “Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit.” For the longest time, I took this to be an exaggeration, something akin to the Lord saying in Mark 11:23 that we could tell a mountain to be cast into the sea and it would if we believed and did not doubt what we said. I am going to say something to be funny here, so (ye purity police) please refrain from shooting me. I always reduced all this to hyperbole, not to be taken literally, sort of like one of the early scenes in Monty Python’s Life of Brian, shot from the perspective of those standing far away at the Sermon the Mount.
“Did you hear what he said? He said, ‘Blessed are the cheese makers.”
“Obviously, you are taking it far too literally. He meant anyone having anything to do with dairy products.”
As with all the deeper things of God that I rationalized and dismissed without fully considering, when I finally sought the Holy Spirit to help me understand what it means to “pray without ceasing,” a deeper meaning came to me. A long, long time ago (meant to be heard tonally like the Don McLean song – but literally over twenty years ago), I sought the Lord about how I was supposed to pray unceasingly if that is what he wanted. I did not exactly hear the bat kol (Hebrew for “voice of God”, literally “daughter of a voice”) or see a burning bush, but I received an answer. A comforting knowing came over me. It went something like this:
“What do you do all the time?”
“I think all the time, but I can’t make all my thoughts be about you (at least I don’t think I can). I have tried.”
“What else do you do all the time?”
“I breathe all the time.”
Bingo. Peace goes off inside me! (For those who find yourselves wielding it, I plead mercy; please put down the attack crack pipe for a millisecond).
I was reminded in that moment of something my very dear friend, Dr. Patrick Welch, had taught me several years before. Ruach, the word for spirit in Hebrew, also means breath. He said that Yeshua’s name means “YHWH Saves.” You can pray that name. Breathe in the first syllable and breathe out the second. “Yeh” (first syllable); “Shua” (second syllable).
When I say that peace went off inside me, I just mean that I felt a wonderful sense of God’s presence. That present peace has stuck with me about this ever since. I am simply describing a way we learn to hear his voice. Ever since that time, I have been reminded to pray that way a lot. It is merely being mindful of his presence in me as I breathe. Bryan and Katie Torwalt sing a song called “I Breathe You In, God” that helps believers digest this. Jonathan David Helser’s song “Abba” is also helpful: “You’re more real than the wind in my lungs. Your thoughts define me. You’re inside me. You’re my reality.”
This idea of breath as prayer has developed into much more for me and I will write about it again later. Right now, I feel lead to discuss this part (in the middle of all this Corona virus mess) because I am completely convinced that the Lord is doing a new thing. I need to pray, not just because I become a complete jerk when I don’t, but because prayer is life to me. I crave his presence. We need to start praying together as one, however. We are his bride, his body – and Yeshua is calling us to unite in him. We can pray as one because we are one. As the song goes, “One bread, one body, one Lord of all, one cup of blessing which we bless; and we, though many, throughout the earth, we are one body in this one Lord.”
We are exhorted to pray without ceasing. This is a way to start. It has helped me immensely. If this simple way does not move you, please seek the Lord for a way to remain prayerful. The Holy Spirit will teach you. We can be certain of this because Yeshua taught us that the Comforter would lead us into all truth. (John 16:13).
If you got anything out of this missive, please give it a thumbs up, comment, and/or share it. It helps. I sincerely appreciate that you took the time to read it.