Pray without ceasing 2

“Pray without ceasing.” 1 Thessalonians 5:17

When you go door-to-door knocking/visitations, you get rejected most of the times. As soon as you identify yourself people will say, “not interested” and just shut the door. But from time to time, we get to meet friendly people who are willing to give their time for you, even though they are not Christians. At the end of the visit, I would ask, “Is there anything we can pray for you? Do you have any prayer requests?” Many times people will say, “Oh that is very nice of you. Please pray for ‘so and so.’ He/she is sick.” Another answer I get the most is simply, “I don’t know,” or “It’s ok.”

Why don’t these people know what to pray for? Aren’t there plenty of things you can think about? Is your life so prosperous that there is nothing to pray for? Well, that’s not it. It is because people don’t know what it means to pray. It’s because people don’t know what it’s like to be in a relationship with God. I wouldn’t expect to start a deep conversation with a mailman when he comes by to drop off the mail. I don’t think I’d share the things going in my life to him. I haven’t set up that relationship with my mailman.

Couple years back, I got to meet my high school friend for the first time in years. We were good friends back then, but when he moved we lost contact until we reconnected via social media. We finally got to meet. We hadn’t seen each other in years but we had so much to talk about and catch up with. What makes him different from the mailman? I believe it’s the same thing with us and God. Many times we don’t know how to pray. It’s time that we define our relationship with God. It’s time to acknowledge that God is our Father, that no one else can come between us. When the relationship is defined, we’ll know what to pray about.