17 August 2021

Pray Without Ceasing

 

Our world has turned upside down, inside out, and twisted itself in knots.

It has, for want of a modern term, gone crazy.

Life for so many is not scary, but terrifying. In the last few days we've had a 7.1 magnitude earthquake in Haiti, killing over 1,200 people. And the Taliban has so very quickly overrun Afghanistan, leaving millions of people to live in fear of their lives. The scenes from the Kabul airport are so distressing to watch, I cannot imagine the fear, the terror, the pain of the people living it.

We have lived through a pandemic, that is being called endemic now that it is out of control and over the entire world.

There are droughts worse than any before known in one part of the world, while in another part floods are wiping out homes and businesses and crops, and another part is burning, with fires so fierce that entire cities have been wiped from the face of the earth.

These things brought to mind Matthew 24:4 - 31. I know, it's almost a cliché, that the words of this chapter of Matthew be used to describe what is happening in our world, but reading over them (and Luke writes a very similar version of what will bring about the end of time in Chapter 21:5 - 37), I can't help but see that the words of Jesus are being fulfilled.

That should scare me. It doesn't, though. I welcome the trials and tribulations that come. Don't get me wrong, I don't like them, but I welcome them. They are the signs that Jesus will be back to gather us to Him, and very soon.

I want to be ready. I want to rise up into the sky to meet Jesus (1 Thessalonians 4:17). And so I pray.

Paul wrote in Thessalonians "pray without ceasing" (1 Thessalonians 5:17) and I think now is not the time to stop praying.

I pray for myself and for my husband and my children. I pray for extended family and friends. I pray to give thanks for all that I have, that my needs are supplied. I pray for forgiveness and for strength. I pray that the Lord will open my mind and my hearts so that I'm not fooled by Satan and his evil angels, that I'm not deceived by the false prophets.

Jesus taught us how to pray, so even when we are at our most stressed, and can't think straight, we can pray. How blessed are we, that our heavenly Father though to teach us how to pray to Him?

We're all familiar with what is known as The Lord's Prayer (Matthew 6:9-13, Luke 11:2-4), it was probably the first prayer we were taught as children. And Jesus taught it to the apostles and He's taught it to us, so we can pray without ceasing, even under stress and duress.

I'm not saying our prayers should be mindless, but rather that when we are mindless, we have a prayer, taught to us by Jesus, that we can send to our Heavenly Father, and we know He'll hear it and answer it.

No comments:

Post a Comment

Thanks so much for taking the time to leave a comment...I just love hearing from you!

Just a couple of things:

Please don't use your comments to advertise your business or goods for sale, any such comments will be removed.

And please include your name, ANONYMOUS POSTS WILL NOT BE PUBLISHED AND WILL BE RECORDED AS SPAM.