1 Thessalonians 5:12-28
Pray Continually
12 Now we ask you, brothers, to respect those who work hard among you, who are over you in the Lord and who admonish you. 13 Hold them in the highest regard in love because of their work. Live in peace with each other. 14 And we urge you, brothers, warn those who are idle, encourage the timid, help the weak, be patient with everyone. 15 Make sure that nobody pays back wrong for wrong, but always try to be kind to each other and to everyone else.
16 Be joyful always; 17 pray continually; 18 give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus.
19 Do not put out the Spirit's fire; 20 do not treat prophecies with contempt. 21 Test everything. Hold on to the good. 22 Avoid every kind of evil.
23 May God himself, the God of peace, sanctify you through and through. May your whole spirit, soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. 24 The one who calls you is faithful and he will do it.
25 Brothers, pray for us. 26 Greet all the brothers with a holy kiss. 27 I charge you before the Lord to have this letter read to all the brothers.
28 The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you.
It is God's will for us to be in Jesus that we should be joyful always, and give thanks in all circumstances, and to be praying continually...Paul writes that we should not put out the Spirit's fire; and do not treat prophecies with contempt...We need to test everything...We must hold on to the good...We should avoid every kind of evil, for there are different kinds of evil...May God Himself, the God of peace, sanctify us through and through...May our whole spirit, soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ...The One who calls you is faithful and He will do it...Brothers, pray for us...Greet all the brothers with a holy kiss...Paul charges the Thessalonians before the Lord to have this letter read to all the brothers...The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ will be with you...
Paul believes that God is at work in all people, in our good times and bad times...So we give God thanks in all circumstances...Paul believed that one should give thanks to God and pray quite regularly...Prayer is not a gift that comes instantly or even quickly...Nor when a prayer is answered always looks like what we expected might happen or the answer we thought about...Sometimes prayer is a slow, persistent process...So for our prayer to be answered we need to pray continuously and persistently...The Spirit is alive and God hears our prayers, because prayer is a two way communication...How can it not be?...Our prayers do not tell God of anything new...He knows our thoughts and all our circumstances...But we ask the LORD to listen to our desire and petition of prayer...And in our prayer of humbleness and humility, we speak to Him that He might answer our prayer of hope on earth as we call out to Him...
So we must learn to pray continually and persistently, for when we think about it, prayer is a part of our lives and a way of life...