The other day, I was at a breakfast mee@ng of local clergy. One of the pastors asked, “What are you doing for your sermon this coming Sunday?” One colleague smiled and replied, “My life is a walking sermon.”
Maybe that quip gives us a handle for this week’s study text. If I “pray without ceasing” (1 Thessalonians 5:17), then my life must be a walking prayer.
How does this work? For example, how can I give thanks in every circumstance (1 Thessalonians 5:18)? In a @me of tragedy, maybe I can give thanks that God has given me sensi@vity to loss. In a @me of defeat, I can give thanks that God has given me an opportunity to learn how to do beYer. In a @me of victory, I can give thanks that God has given me the joy of celebra@on.
That does not mean that God has given me loss or defeat or even victory. It means that God has given me gi[s for each of these circumstances. How else can I “pray without ceasing,” un@l my prayer-life includes the full range of life?
When I was in the sixth grade, I had a classmate who would bow her head in prayer before each test. One @me she got back her grade and saw that she had flunked the test. I teased her and asked her if she had prayed before she studied for the exam. She shook her head and mumbled that she had not had @me to study that week. Hmmmm.
We pray with our a^tude as much as we do with our words. To “pray without ceasing” is to live with an a^tude of thanksgiving, an a^tude of supplica@on, an a^tude of intercession, an a^tude of repentance, an a^tude of trust, an a^tude of service, an a^tude of rela@onship, an a^tude of resurrec@on.
When are my prayers just words? When is my life praying?
What Someone Else Has Said: In her book Bathed in Prayer, “G.P. Putnam's Sons” Jan Karon has quoted William Law who said, “There is nothing that makes us love someone so much as praying for them.”
Prayer: As you prepare this lesson, let your prayer begin: “Hear my words, O God, but help me match my life to Your will. Let me ‘take @me to be holy,’ but move my very being and doing to holiness...”
