1 Thessalonians 5:17

1 Thessalonians 5:17

I. The nature of prayer. Prayer is not a rite, not a ceremony, not a cold, outward observance, but an actual intercourse between two parties one who prays and One who hears. It is a communion between man and God, as real and actual as what passes between two men, when they speak face to face with each other. If the inward desire is absent, then prayer is absent; and though a man shall have breathed all his life long the words of prayer, he will never have prayed if he has never asked. We cannot ask unless we desire, and we cannot desire, unless we feel our want. Thus, therefore, the word expresses much more than this. See how great is the dignity of prayer. When the soul prays it is as if the distance between itself and the throne of God were annihilated. This is the idea conveyed in the expression of St. Paul. "Let us, therefore, come boldly unto the throne of grace." To pray is to cometo the throne of grace, its exercise bringing us into the very presence of God, as really and truly as if in the body we stepped upon the gleaming pavement of heaven, and stood at God's footstool, and gazed upon the majesty of His appearance. To the dignity of prayer, add likewise the thought of its power. There are mysteries in it as regards the free knowledge and the free sovereignty of God, which we cannot pierce nor try to pierce; but it is most certain from the word that believing prayer has, humanly speaking, in virtue of His own promise, the power to change and modify the Divine intentions.

II. Consider the universality of the duty. "Pray without ceasing." When the true nature of prayer is rightly comprehended, this, too, will follow from the mere instincts of the soul's desire. The words express (1) constancy and perseverance. The single petition does not make prayer. Supplication must be constant, as well as persevering. Not more truly is the body dependent for its life, and health, and food, upon a constant providence, than the soul is on the constant gift of grace. To think that the child of God will ever in this world be so free from enemies without and from fightings within as not to need fresh supplies of strength and peace, is but the device of the arch-enemy who lies in wait to lead us into ruin. Never, never can prayer cease on this side the grave; never, till the earthly strife is past, and the earthly temptation ended, and the earthly tempest has sunk to rest over the deep waters that roll between us and our Canaan above. Then, indeed, prayer will cease, but it will cease only to swell praise into a more divine energy and lift its voice amid the rapturous hallelujahs of the redeemed.

E. Garbett, The Soul's Life,p. 271.

Religious exercises are, to many, very dull and uninteresting. Prayer is to many a tiresome thing. They will bow their heads or kneel and endure the uncongenial form, but they feel no interest in it, and they are secretly glad when it is over. To them religion appears to cloud the face, darken the sky, and make life gloomy. But if Christians are gloomy, it is not in obedience to Divine orders. "Rejoice evermore," says the inspiring Spirit, and, perhaps as a means towards the constant joy, he adds: "Pray without ceasing."

I. Does this mean that we are, night and day, to keep praying, never ceasing, as some of the ascetics of the Middle Ages claimed to do? No. Paul the Apostle laboured "night and day." Does that mean that he never slept at night? No, it is the expression, in common speech, of the idea that he was bent on his work all the time, just as you may sometimes say truly of a thing that you are thinking about it, or working at it, night and day. It means that you give to it all the time available. Now in the same sense are we to pray without ceasing.

II. Note, in the next place, that desire is a condition of real prayer. When our desire is according to the Divine will, and endorsed, so to speak, by the Saviour, it is granted. It goes in His name. So we have to study the Scriptures to know what is God's will, and look for the help of the Spirit to make us prayerful, hopeful, patient, persevering under that gracious influence. "This is the confidence that we have in Him, that if we ask anything according to His will, He heareth us."

J. Hall, Christian World Pulpit,vol. xii., p. 15.

References: 1 Thessalonians 5:17. Spurgeon, Sermons,vol. xviii., No. 1039; S. A. Tipple, Sunday Mornings at Norwood,p. 109; Plain Sermons,vol. v., p. 131; J. Kelly, Christian World Pulpit,vol. xviii., p. 374; Clergyman's Magazine,vol. v., p. 270. 1 Thessalonians 5:18. H. Jones, Christian World Pulpit,vol. xxxvi., p. 341;, E. L. Hull, Sermons,1st series, p. 14. 1 Thessalonians 5:19. Preacher's Monthly,vol. ix., p. 285; Clergyman's Magazine,vol. viii., p. 273; E. Garbett, The Soul's Life,p. 180; Bishop Temple, Rugby Sermons,vol. i., p. 46; C. G. Finney, Gospel Themes,p. 245.