While I was in Birmingham this past week, I heard about a study that was conducted a few years ago that surveyed the prayer lives of pastors. The results were startling. It revealed that 80% of pastors pray less than 15 minutes each day. It also concluded that the average churchgoer only prays between 4 and 7 minutes a day!

Now you always have to be careful about any statistics that you read, but when I read this report I became convicted about my own prayerlessness. I need to confess to you this morning that my prayer life isn’t what it should be. I wish this wasn’t the case, but it is! I am so sorry that I have failed you in this way!

If I could snap my fingers and change one thing about myself, I would ask God to make me more devoted to prayer. Don’t get me wrong, like you, I do pray. I pray almost every morning. I pray during worship services and church meetings. I pray before meals. I go on prayer walks. I pray in hospital rooms and in people’s homes. I pray for folks over the phone. My life is not devoid of prayer. But yet, oh how I wish my commitment to prayer were more—more earnest, more passionate, and more consistent!

How about you? How is your prayer life? How much time do you dedicate to prayer in an average day? Do you wish your prayer life was more serious, fervent, and faithful?

How about our church as a whole? Are we a praying church? Are we a Christian community that gains its guidance and draws its power from God in prayer or we a church that tries to function on its own power and resources?

I seriously doubt that the church in North America is known around the world as a church committed to prayer. We have money, education, books, a lot of missionaries, and some great teachers. But do we have a reputation for serious, importunate, long-suffering prayer? What if the single biggest answer for the decline of Christianity in America and our lack of spiritual fruit was not due the need of a new strategy for sharing Jesus with others, the lack of new music, or the lack of new ways of doing church, but the lack of prayer? What if our church took a fresh look at all we are doing, put everything on the table and said, “Let’s put prayer first and we’ll see what we can fit in after that?”

Pray without Ceasing (I Thessalonians 1:17)

Though out the Bible God tells us that he wants us to be a people of prayer. Not surprisingly then, Paul wished for all of his converts to be committed to prayer as a fundamental activity of their lives. He believed it was the Christian’s duty to engage in prayer regularly, and nowhere does he state this more clearly than I Thessalonians 5:17. These two simple words provide a power-packed imperative command for God’s church. Continual prayer is God’s will and expectation for all Christian!

Paul wrote these two words as a part of his letter to the church of Thessalonica. He planted this little church on his second missionary journey and he cared deeply about its survival. When he first preached the gospel to these Thessalonians, only a handful of Jews and a slightly higher number of gentiles became Christians. The rest of the Jews in the city were unreceptive to Paul or his message about the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ and they stirred up a riot against him. Their hostility was so severe that it forced Paul to flee the city. When the Jews couldn’t apprehend Paul, they released their rage against Paul’s followers. This little church was facing tremendous persecution. Many of the believers feared for their lives.

But in spite of the fierce persecution, the Thessalonian church was standing firm and keeping the faith. Paul knew firsthand what they were experiencing, so he wrote them this letter to encourage their hearts and to teach them how to persevere through hardship. These two words “pray continually” come at toward the end of the letter where he delivers some final instructions.

Constant prayer would enable them to faithfully endure.

But what does he actually mean when he says “pray continually.” Obviously, he does not mean for the Christians to drop all other activities for the sake of prayer. He means that every activity must be carried on in a spirit which is the spontaneous outcome of a sense of God’s presence. In the context, this command for continual prayer is meant for individual believers and the church as a whole. It is the ongoing reminder that God’s children are always and wholly dependent upon him for all things.

Notice also how this verse to pray continually is sandwiched in between the commands to “be joyful always” and “give thanks in all circumstances.” Considering the Thessalonians circumstances, it would have been impossible for them to do either one of these things without consistent prayer. The rivers of joy and thankfulness flow through the valley of prayer!

Reasons Why People Don’t Pray

I would guess that this isn’t the first time you have heard this verse or the first time you have been told that God expects us to pray. So, if we all already know this, why are the statistics for prayer so low? Why don’t we pray more often? Why don’t we pray more consistently? Why don’t be pray better? Well, I can think of a few reasons why people don’t pray!

1.) We don’t really believe in the power of prayer!

One of the chief reasons why people don’t pray is that don’t really believe in its power. Deep down I think we believe that if we spend a lot of time praying, we’ll still have the same problems left to deal with. We just won’t have as much time to deal with them. Prayerlessness is the measure of our unbelief. We don’t really believe that God answers prayers. We don’t really believe that we have not because we ask not. We don’t really believe that God can do more than we ask or imagine. True, God doesn’t need to hear from us, but he ordained prayer so that we might him work and he might be glorified in answering our prayers.

A few months ago I was talking with an elderly friend. He has been struggling with an incurable disease for a number of years now. He continues to suffer as he draws closer to death with each passing day. During the course of our conversation I asked him what God has taught him through this experience. He thought about it for a minute and said, “Well, I have become convinced of the power of prayer! When I was younger and could do everything for myself, I had my doubts about prayer, but now that I am old and sick, I have been able to see the effects of prayer.

Have you seen the effects of prayer? Do you believe in the power of prayer?

2.) We are too busy for prayer!

Other people believe in the power of prayer, but their problem is that they just don’t have enough time. I hear a lot of people say, “I would like to pray more, but I am just too busy!” By the time we wake up in the morning, go to work or school, take care of our responsibilities, eat a few meals, share a little family time, and maybe have a little recreation, what time do we really have for prayer?

The sixteenth century church reformer Martin Luther once said, “Work, work, from morning until late at night. In fact, I have so much to do that I shall have to spend the first three hours of the day in prayer.”

Time and busyness are always about priorities, aren’t they? Where is prayer on our priority list? I wonder if we might actually accomplish more by working less and praying more!

3.) We don’t feel any need for prayer!

Another reason why people don’t pray is that they don’t feel a need to pray. When our bodies are healthy, our families are happy, our country is safe, our economy is stable, and our jobs are secure, why in the world would we need to pray. I believe that this is the number one reason why Americans don’t pray. We are so secure that we don’t feel the need to pray. Our addiction to self-sufficiency negates our need for prayer. We would rather just figure things out for ourselves than to ask God for help.

This is evidenced by the fact that America saw a 25% rise in church attendance in the weeks following the September 11th terrorist attacks. When our country was unstable and fear filled the air, people prayed and went to church. Even more significantly, only a month after the attacks, church attendance went right back to where it was before.

It is easy to feel the need to pray when our security is threatened, but what about now? Everyone wants God when things go wrong, but what about when things are going well. Do you feel the need to pray? Do you feel the need to pray every day?

Unceasing Corporate Prayer

When Paul tells us to “pray continually”, he means that we should be praying together faithfully. Remember, he wrote this letter to the whole church! God’s church should have consistent times of prayer together.

This starts with our prayer times together during Sunday morning worship, but it should be much more than that. I believe this is one of our church’s weaknesses. We don’t pray with each other enough. In the coming months I am going to work to change this. Our church’s ministry will never be maximized without a heartfelt and faithful commitment to prayer.

Not long after I became a Christian I began participating in a Wednesday evening men’s prayer meeting at my home church in Josephine, PA. There were never more than seven or eight men there, but we were faithful. Those men taught me how to pray and we saw incredible miracles at that little country church. That church was poor in resources, but it was rich in prayer. I believe that is why God blessed its ministry so greatly!

Unceasing Personal Prayer

In addition to unceasing corporate prayer, “pray continually” means unceasing personal prayer. I already mentioned this does not mean that we are supposed to quit our jobs and just pray all day for God to feed us, but it does mean to spend time in formal and informal prayer every day. We can have a constant conversation with God in the quietness of our own hearts and minds.

Brother Lawrence, a seventeenth-century French monk, dedicated himself to practice the presence of God at all times. Prior to becoming a monk he was known as Nicholas Herman of Lorraine. As a young man he was a soldier, but after becoming a monk he lived a quiet life performing various domestic chores for his monastery.

When talking to individuals, Brother Lawrence shared information about his own repeated efforts to keep his attention riveted on God no matter what business was occupying him. He reports that eventually this continual recollection of God became effortless and filled him with peace and joy.

The Practice of the Presence of God is a collection of documented conversations and letters that reveal the heart of this humble man. He wrote, “The time of business does not with me differ from the time of prayer, and in the noise and clatter of my kitchen…I possess God in as great tranquility as if I were upon my knees at the blessed sacrament.”

Brother Lawrence’s wisdom and spiritual insights have helped bring people closer to God for more than three centuries. Maybe it will help us follow in his footsteps and practice the presence of God throughout the day. Maybe it will help us to cultivate that habit to pray without ceasing!

The apostle Paul really did want the Thessalonian church to pray without ceasing. God really does want us to be people who pray continually! Let me conclude by reading you this provocative poem about prayer!

The Poem

I knelt to pray but not for long, I had too much to do.
I had to hurry and get to work, For bills would soon be due.

So I knelt and said a hurried prayer, And jumped up off my knees.
My Christian duty was now done, My soul could rest at ease.

All day long I had no time, To spread a word of cheer.
No time to speak of Christ to friends, They’d laugh at me I’d fear.

No time, no time, too much to do, That was my constant cry,
No time to give to souls in need, But at last the time, the time to die.

I went before the Lord, I came, I stood with downcast eyes.
For in his hands God held a book; It was the book of life.

God looked into his book and said “Your name I cannot find.
I once was going to write it down… But never found the time”