PRAYER-CONTINUOUS
I
live in the spirit of prayer; I pray as I walk, when I lie down and when I
rise, and the answers are always coming.
There is a
way of ordering our mental life on more than one level at once. On one level we can be thinking, discussing,
seeing, calculating, meeting all the demands of
external affairs. But deep within,
behind the scenes, at a profounder level, we may also be in prayer and
adoration, song and worship, and a gentle receptiveness to divine breathings.
Thomas Kelly
Testament of Devotion, Harper, 1941, p. 35.
Praying
without ceasing means you never really stop conversing with God; you simply
have frequent interruptions.
Donald Whitney
Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life,
1991, p. 68, Used by permission of NavPress – www.navpress.com,
All rights reserved.
For more information please see the website www.BibicalSpirituality.org.
I was almost
constantly in ejaculatory prayer, wherever I was. Prayer seemed to be natural to me, as the
breath by which the inward burnings of my heart had vent.
Jonathan Edwards
The Works of Jonathan Edwards,
Selections, pg. 61, Published by the Banner of Truth Trust, Carlisle, PA 17013.
Unceasing
prayer is God’s avenue for His children to react to all happenings.
Clyde Martin
Outside the Closet, The
Prayer Life, June, 2004.
If
the spiritual life be healthy, under the full power of the Holy Spirit, praying
without ceasing will be natural.
Andrew Murray
Through
His Spirit, the Spirit of prayer, our life may be one of continual prayer. The Spirit of prayer will help you become an
intercessor, asking great things of God for those around you.
Andrew Murray
The time of
business does not differ with me from the time of prayer; and in the noise and
clatter of my kitchen, while several persons are at the same time calling for
different things, I possess God in as great
tranquility as if I were on my knees.
Brother Lawrence
The Practice of the Presence of God, Revell,
1958, p. 30-31.
To
pray at all times is to live in continual God consciousness, where everything we
see and experience becomes a kind of prayer, lived in deep awareness of and
surrender to our heavenly Father. To obey this exhortation means that, when we
are tempted, we hold the temptation before God and ask for His help. When we
experience something good and beautiful, we immediately thank the Lord for it. When
we see evil around us, we pray that God will make it right and be willing to be
used of Him to that end. When we meet someone who does not know Christ, we pray
for God to draw that person to Himself and to use us to be a faithful witness.
When we encounter trouble, we turn to God as our Deliverer. In other words, our
life becomes a continually ascending prayer, a perpetual communing with our
heavenly Father. To pray at all times is to constantly set our minds “on things
that are above, not on the things that are on earth” (Col. 3:2).
John MacArthur
Ephesians, Moody, 1986, p. 380.
Longing desire prayeth always,
though the tongue be silent. If thou art ever longing,
thou art ever praying.
God's
command to "pray without ceasing" is founded on the necessity we have
of His grace to preserve the life of God in the soul, which can no more subsist
one moment without it, than the body can without air.
John Wesley
In
souls filled with love, the desire to please God is continual prayer.
John Wesley
Prayer can
never be in excess.
C.H. Spurgeon
Prevailing
prayer takes the Christian to the mountain and enables him to cover heaven with
clouds of blessings, and earth with floods of mercy. Prevailing prayer lifts
the Christian and shows him his inheritance and transfigures him into the
likeness of his Lord. If you would like to reach to something higher than
ordinary groveling experience, look to the Rock that is higher than you, and
gaze with the eye of faith through the window of consistent prayer. When you
open the window on your side it will not be bolted on the other.
Charles H. Spurgeon
Morning and Evening.
If we think
of prayer as the breath of our lungs and the blood from our hearts, we think
rightly. The blood flows and the breathing continues – we are not conscious of
it but it is always going on.
Oswald Chambers
All of our
warfare and all of our activity must take place in the context of constant,
unceasing prayer. Just as a soldier on
the battle line has to keep in constant communication with his general
headquarters and his commanding officer, so the Christian who is on the battle
line must be in constant communication with his Lord. He might be fully equipped with all the
armor, but if he is cut off from personal communication with his own commander,
then he will be isolated and vulnerable.
R.C. Sproul
The Purpose of God, An
Exposition of Ephesians, Christian Focus Publications, 1994, p. 152.