Unceasing Prayer

What is unceasing prayer?  I know it can be confusing to think about.  The thought that immediately comes to mind is that to be in unceasing prayer means to be talking to God constantly, never stopping, even when we talk to other people, when we think about other things, and even while sleeping.  But of course, that's impossible.  We can't be shaping our thoughts into words of prayer while our mind is on something else.  But that's not what unceasing prayer is.

We talked about unceasing prayer in my prayer small group at Freshley this week.  The main thing that stuck out to me was an excerpt from a book that said that tennis is much easier to play when the player has had practice.  Thank you, Captain Obvious.  But the author takes this statement and applies it to prayer.  When we pray frequently, prayer becomes a natural response to everything in life, and prayer begins to flow out from us more easily.  We begin to pray as if by habit, but with none of the lifelessness of mere habit.

As a trumpet player and a music major, music analogies work really well for me.  Ceaseless prayer is like being a musician: If you practice your instrument (since I play trumpet, I'm going to use the trumpet for this analogy) regularly and frequently, playing becomes easier and the basic technique becomes second nature.  And as you continue to practice and get better, you begin to identify yourself as a trumpet player.  You don't have to be playing trumpet every single moment of every day to still be a trumpet player.  If I played my trumpet continuously and never stopped, I would eventually get burnt out.  It's impossible for me to constantly be playing my trumpet.  How would I eat?  How would I sleep?  But even though I am not playing my trumpet while I'm typing this, I can still say that I am a trumpet player because I practice regularly and it is a part of who I am.  Prayer is the same way: It is impossible for us to form our thoughts into prayers at every moment of every day, but if we regularly and frequently devote ourselves to prayer, we begin to identify ourselves as pray-ers.  And even though I don't walk around buzzing constantly (although I do buzz while walking occasionally—buzzing the lips is what makes sound come out of the trumpet), everything I do is shaping me to be able to play my trumpet the next time I pick it up: I may be resting after having finished practicing; I may be sleeping so I can get up to practice the next day; I may be eating to nourish my body, including my mouth/lips.  And in the same way, even though we don't pray constantly, if we pray frequently, everything we do becomes a prayer in itself: We sleep and thank God for giving us peace and rest, we eat and thank God for filling us, we talk with friends and thank God for giving us a community with the body of Christ and opportunities to share the gospel with our friends who don't know Him, we do homework or work at our jobs and thank God for giving us a way to serve Him and further His kingdom.  And everything we do also prepares us for the next time we put our prayers into words, because it gives us something to pray about.

So what is ceaseless prayer?  It's being so frequently in earnest prayer that prayer becomes a natural response to everything in our lives.  It's being so frequently in prayer that everything we do turns into a wordless prayer, expressing our thanks, our needs, and our desires.  To pray without ceasing is to dwell in God's presence and to allow our lives to become our prayers.