Pray without Ceasing
1 Thessalonians 5:17 – Teach Us to Pray, Part 5
14th Sunday in Ordinary Time – August 30th, 2026 (am)
One of the most challenging practices in our Christian lives is given to us as a charge in one of the shortest verses of the Bible: 1Th5:17 Pray without ceasing. It’s hard for us to understand doing almost anything without ceasing. But as we think about it, we can also see that it’s not entirely clear what without ceasing even means!
Back in my high school soccer days, we’d run laps around the school property before or after practice. It was nine-tenths of a mile per lap, and we’d run one, two, or even three laps at a time. I still remember our coach saying: I want you running every step of the way! No walking! And I remember with some of my teammates it was pretty hard to tell the difference! Regardless, our coach wanted us to run without ceasing. His meaning was: run incessantly, constantly.
From the same period of my life, I remember my chemistry teacher telling us he wanted us to keep up with the daily work in class. Each day’s lecture would build on the day before and it wouldn’t go well with us at all if we got behind and had to catch up. He wanted us to stay current. He, too, was telling us to work without ceasing. But he wasn’t telling us to work constantly. His meaning was: work consistently, stay current.
During our laps around the property, there was to be no time when we weren’t running. But during our year of chemistry, there were many hours a week when we weren’t studying chemistry. But we ran and we studied chemistry without ceasing.
Another way to think about this is that, to stay alive, we need both to breathe and to eat without ceasing. But breathing without ceasing and eating without ceasing mean two very different things. We need to breathe constantly. We need to eat consistently, at regular intervals, perhaps, even several times a day, but not constantly, not incessantly.
My favorite example compares a clock and a refrigerator. Both need to run. A clock, to be of any value, must run incessantly, constantly. But a refrigerator only needs to run consistently. It needs to maintain a constant temperature inside. And to do that, the compressor turns on and off as controlled by the thermostat to maintain that temperature.
So, what charge is Paul giving us here regarding prayer? He’s telling us, in first-century terms, to pray like a refrigerator! Pray with a constancy that maintains a consistent, spiritually healthy temperature in your relationship with God. That’s the without ceasing part, but in order to understand this challenging practice, let’s ask two questions of this charge.
What Does It Mean to Pray without Ceasing?
First, let’s understand how Paul meant this in context. He wrote his first letter to the church at Thessalonica to tell them: God has saved you, now trust Him, and help one another trust Him, to enable you all to walk in holiness until Jesus returns. This is a good theme statement for the letter. And this church was facing persecution! This is the city where it seems like Paul stayed only about three weeks (Act.17:2) before the Jews, out of jealousy, hired some wicked men of the rabble, formed a mob, set the city in an uproar, and attacked the house of one of the local Christians, Jason; they dragged [him] and some of the brothers before the city authorities, shouting, “These men who have turned the world upside down have come here also, and Jason has received them, and they are all acting against the decree’s of Caeser saying there is another king, Jesus (Act.17:5-6). Even so, in three weeks the church took root enough to endure. And these were some of those generous Christians who gave money even out of their poverty (2Co.8:1-7) to famine relief.
Now, in this closing section (12-28), Paul is giving them some final charges on what life in their fellowship should look like, how they should live as they anticipate the coming of our Lord (23). It’s really not too hard to understand his meaning. From v.12 on, he’s calling them to joyful worship [of] God, to whom [they] owed [unceasing] thanks. And he’s saying that grumbling toward leaders (12-13), or impatience with the immature (14), [or] anger toward those who do wrong (15) [should never be allowed to invade] the fellowship of [their local church] (Martin 181). Rather, in their body, they should always seek to do good to one another, and to everyone; no one repays anyone evil for evil (15). How?
Here it is. 16 Rejoice always, 17 pray without ceasing, 18 give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. This is a pretty high calling, isn’t it? Essentially: always rejoice, always pray, and always give thanks. There it is! It’s that simple! That’s how God calls us to live until Jesus returns! Maybe it sounds impossible. But as you think about it, the more you can actually see how it might not be.
What Paul is doing is calling them, and us, to keep our eyes fixed on the amazing work God has done for us in Christ (Heb.12:2). Even in a persecuted church, knowing what’s coming in Him is a joyful, thankful thought! And it’s not hard to imagine that living in satisfied anticipation of it pleases God! It is His will for [us] (18). And it really is possible when having this relationship means that to live is Christ and to die is gain (Phi.1:21), something Paul wrote to another church in this area.
Notice now how Paul finishes this section. 19 Do not quench the Spirit. 20 Do not despise prophecies, 21 but test everything; hold fast what is good. 22 Abstain from every form of evil—a set of negative commands to accompany the positive—things not to do along with the things we should do. Evidently, some bad preaching had slipped into Thessalonica, some false ideas. And rather than working the problem—weeding out the bad and keeping the good—the Thessalonians had grown suspicious of all preaching. And it was quenching the ministry of the Spirit in their church. So, Paul is telling them not to throw out the baby with the bath water. Rather, test what you hear according to Scripture and the Apostles’ teaching (1Co.14:29; 1Jo.4:1). Exercise some discernment. And don’t let a few bad apples ruin the whole bunch. Don’t let them steal your joy or silence your prayers or mute your thanksgiving. God speaks through the preaching of His Word. But His children are still supposed to listen carefully to what they hear, test it, and dismiss anything that’s offline. That’s a big part of what we do while we’re waiting for Jesus to return.
So, there it is. And our passage today, Paul’s charge to pray without ceasing (17)—pray with a regularity that maintains a constant spiritual temperature in your relationship with God—stands right at the heart of all this instruction.
How Do We Go About Praying without Ceasing?
So, how do we do this? Let me offer three observations of what I believe it will require for us to begin growing in this practice of praying without ceasing. First, it will involve ongoing discernment of the spiritual temperature of our relationship with God. Like a thermostat in a refrigerator, we’re going to need to develop a sense of the warmth or coolness of our relationship with God. That’s something we can pray about, but it’s also something we’re pretty tuned-in to rather early on in our Christian lives, whether God feels near and attentive or distant and unresponsive, or whether our own heart feels warm or cold toward Him.
All of these matter to us when we pray. And we know from Scripture that it really makes a difference. We see all sorts of language for it in the Psalms. Psa.3:3 … [Y]ou, O Lord, are a shield about me…. 5 I lay down and slept; I woke again, for the Lord sustained me. The Lord feels near, enabling me to feel safe and secure even when I’m asleep. But Psa.13:1 How long, O Lord? Will you forget me forever? How long will you hide your face from me? The Lord seems far away, making me feel alone, even estranged, vulnerable. Both of these are Psalms of David, the same poet at different times noting his sense of the proximity of God at the opening of his prayers.
But there are two sides to a relationship. Psa.16:8 I have set the Lord always before me; because he is at my right hand, I shall not be shaken. 9 Therefore my heart is glad, and my whole being rejoices…. My heart feels warm and responsive to God. But Psa.38:8 I am feeble and crushed; I groan because of the tumult of my heart. 9 O Lord, all my longing is before you; my sighing is not hidden from you. God is present, and paying attention. I know that. But my heart is troubled and isn’t finding satisfaction in Him. Again, both of these are Psalms of David, assessing the temperature of his relationship with God from his side in prayer. And he’s talking to God about it. He’s praying about it. We need to do the same. We need to be honest with God in prayer.
But, why does this matter? Isn’t God always near no matter how we feel? Yes, He is, but this is still a real relationship.
Second, it will involve recognizing that this is indeed a relationship we’re monitoring and maintaining. And every relationship has warmer and cooler periods even in the absence of any particular conflict. That’s just part of how we relate. And prayer is our communication with God in real relationship, real-time, day by day. It doesn’t just happen during times set aside for uninterrupted communication. It’s also happens in the flow of daily life as the need for God’s wisdom or protection or guidance or discernment or patience just rise up in front of us out of the circumstances and conversations of our day. This is the only setting that can help prayer without ceasing make clear and comfortable sense to us. I believe Paul was talking about all types of prayer when he was charging us to pray in today’s text. But I don’t believe any of us will be able to pray without ceasing in the way we should without factoring in this dynamic, real-time conversation with God throughout the day.
I believe one of the worst developments in the history of the church’s understanding of relationship with God and particularly prayer has been separating our communication with Him into compartmentalized sessions. It began for very good reason, I believe, prompted by Psa.119:164 Seven times a day I praise you for your righteous rules. So, the church initiated the now historic seven prayer offices. And that has ordered the prayer lives of many over the centuries. Hear me, I don’t want to criticize set times of prayer. Jesus Himself went to quiet, undistracting places for lengthy periods to pray. But I do want to note the danger of setting prayer apart from the rhythm of daily life and relationship with God and considering that a healthy communication pattern. Confining prayer to certain windows of time makes it more like an item on a to-do list or even a job description than like dynamic communication in a treasured relationship. I’m sure that discipline has done much to facilitate seasons of focused prayer during which God has our undivided attention, but I believe it’s done so at the expense of real-time prayer during the flow of regular, daily life.
Third, it will involve recognizing that all types of talk make up the communication flow in a treasured relationship. No relationship of any sort can grow without communication. It’s the essential requirement and most central activity in all growing, developing, truly satisfying relationships. And it takes ample communication of every kind to facilitate our most treasured relationships. Do you see the problem if we view our prayer lives as tied-in to our study of God’s Word and assigned to a certain ten- or twenty-minute segment of our day? Do you see that we’d have the same problem if our communication with God were lengthened to an hour-long segment, or even two-hours? I can’t image what would happen in my relationship with Jean if all our communication during the day had to fit into a ten- or twenty-minute window, or even an hour- or two-hour-window. We in the body can check in with one another asking: Have you had your quiet time today, your time with the Lord? Men, can you even imagine us asking one another if we’ve had our conversation with our wife today, as if it were even possible to relegate the communication flow of that relationship into one segment of each day?
Jean and I talk regularly. Indeed, we communicate without ceasing. We talk in the morning as we’re getting ready for the day. We talk through breakfast if neither of us has an early appointment. We catch up by phone if something happens during the day that requires consultation, or if a worker is at the house and a decision needs to be made. The flow of texts is frequent for little details we just can’t lose touch with, and sometimes the message is one character long: k. If something serious arises, everything stops and serious conversation ensues. It can’t always be immediate, but the further we go in life the more our circumstances allow even for that. Not even the long conversations are scheduled. Oh, we may make room for them on anniversaries or holidays, but the dynamic flow of communication between us doesn’t reflect anything like the scheduled windows on our appointment calendar. That’s just not how we manage our relationship. Depending on the dynamics of others’ relationships, they may need to text: We’ll need to talk about that this evening when we get home. But even then, can you even imagine saying: We’ll need to talk about that next time we have a communication window scheduled. That’s just not how we treat our treasured relationships.
Prayer without ceasing encompasses every sort of prayer, from long seasons of uninterrupted prayer to snippets of real-time back-and-forth prayer. But I can guarantee you that you will not truly pray without ceasing until you’ve developed the latter to complement the former. And don’t trip over scheduling. It really helps if you need it. But what we need most isn’t scheduled windows. What we need most is dynamic conversation with God—open, engaged communication with Him as though we genuinely treasure that relationship.
Conclusion
We need to pray without ceasing (17).
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Resources
Arnold, Clinton E., gen. ed. 2002. Zondervan Illustrated Bible Background Commentary. Vol. 3, Romans-Philemon. 1 Thessalonians, by Jeffrey A. D. Weima, 404-429. Grand Rapids: Zondervan.
Beale, G. K., & D. A. Carson, eds. 2007. Commentary on the New Testament Use of the Old Testament. 1-2 Thessalonians, by Jeffrey A. D. Weima, 871-889. Grand Rapids: Baker Academic.
Calvin, John. 2010. Commentary on the Epistle of Paul to the Philippians, Colossians, and Thessalonians, trans, by John Pringle. The First Epistle to the Thessalonians, 233-306. Logos.
Carson, D. A., R. T. France, J. A. Motyer, & G. J. Wenham, eds. 1994. New Bible Commentary 21st Century Edition. 1 Thessalonians, by I. Howard Marshall, 1277-1285. Leicester, Eng.: InterVarsity.
. 2014. Praying with Paul: A Call to Spiritual Reformation, Second Edition. Grand Rapids: Baker Academic.
Dever, Mark. 2005. The Message of the New Testament. Ch. 13, The Message of 1 Thessalonians: The Second Coming, 300-319. Wheaton: Crossway.
Dockery, David S, ed. 1995. New American Commentary. Vol. 33, 1, 2 Thessalonians, by D. Michael Martin. Nashville: Broadman & Holman.
Grudem, Wayne, ed. 2008. ESV Study Bible. Study Notes on 1 Thessalonians, by Colin Nicholl. Wheaton: Crossway.
Hubbard, David A., & Glenn W. Barker. 1982. Word Biblical Commentary. Vol. 45, 1 & 2 Thessalonians, by F. F. Bruce. 1 Thessalonians, 1-136. Dallas: Word.
Hughes, R. Kent, ed. 2011. Preaching the Word. 1-2 Thessalonians: The Hope of Salvation, by James H. Grant Jr. 1 Thessalonians, 15-152. Wheaton: Crossway.
Longman III, Tremper, & David E. Garland, eds. 2006. Expositor’s Bible Commentary, Revised Edition. Vol. 12, Ephesians-Philemon. 1 Thessalonians, by Robert L. Thomas, 361-439. Grand Rapids: Zondervan.
Morris, Leon, ed. 1984. Tyndale New Testament Commentaries. Vol. 13, 1 and 2 Thessalonians, by Leon Morris. 1 Thessalonians, 17-111 Downers Grove: InterVarsity.
NEXT SUNDAY: Teach Us to Pray, Part 6, The Spirit Helps Us, Romans 8:26–27