Pray continually

“Pray continually” (1 Thessalonians 5:17)

Prayer is at once the simplest and the most difficult thing to do. Prayer is also the most essential thing for a Christian. In its simplest form, prayer is nothing but a child of God speaking to his Father in heaven, just like any child on earth speaks to its mother. We must speak to God in all simplicity and honesty. Just tell God about all your needs, feelings, problems and sorrows. Tell Him right away whatever you feel and experience. Just pour out your heart in God’s presence in total confidence that He is right there standing before you listening to you. Prayer is as simple as that.

   But this simplest thing has turned out to be most difficult thing. The reasons for this are many. The biggest reason is the devil doesn’t want us to pray. If there is anything that devil is afraid of, that is prayer of a believer in Christ. Someone has rightly said that Satan laughs at your theological knowledge but he trembles at your prayer. John Knox has said “Satan trembles when the weakest saint is on his knees”

   Satan laughs at our theological knowledge because he himself is a great theologian. Theology is nothing but knowledge of God and Satan knows everything about God. He even knows the Holy Scriptures better than anyone of us. Satan is a creature of the highest order of intelligence. He even quoted the scriptures when he tried to tempt our Lord in the wilderness. That shows how confident he is about his Biblical knowledge! We cannot overcome the devil with our theological knowledge alone. If we quote the scripture the devil will quote the scriptures too. So, he’s just not bothered about your theology.

   But Satan trembles when we kneel down in God’s presence, because that is the time when the only Uncreated Person in the universe who created everything else, including yourself, the One who created even Satan, walks into your room to fill you with His power and bless you. That is the reason Satan is afraid of your prayers. So he will do everything in his power to stop you from praying. We must remember that the prime interest of the devil is to destroy the prayer life of a Christian. If he can initially stop you from praying he can do anything he wants in your life. He can stop you from reading the Bible and slowly he can lead you into secret sin and rob you of your power and joy of salvation. When this happens the devil has won the battle! Once the devil can successfully stop you from praying, other things are easy for him. He has won 90% of the battle right when he stops you from going into the prayer room. Neglecting the early morning hour of prayer is the beginning of the defeat in our lives.

   That is the reason Satan will do everything he can, to stop you from praying. He may tell you that you are sick today or that you are too tired and you need some rest! He may bring someone who is in great need to you right when you are going to pray and admonish you that you must be a “Good Samaritan”. Satan will tell you that the helping hands are better than praying lips! He will somehow convince you that after all praying right now is not necessary. He will not tell you not to pray but he will only tell you that you can pray later. That later prayer hour will never arrive in your life.

   We must maintain our morning prayer hour under any circumstances and at any cost. We can do anything, but only after you finish your morning hour of prayer that ensures holiness, power, victory and safety throughout the day. May we understand the importance of prayer and give it the right place in our life!