Q:  What does it mean to “pray without ceasing?”

A: (from Brandon) This is not the definitive answer, but here’s an excerpt from my and Liv’s forthcoming book: Not Home Yet: How to be human in an inhuman world.

There is one way that specifically Christian prayer differs from normal conversation: our prayer is always a response to God.

Jesus is always the one who speaks–who loves–first. Prayer is never me talking into a void, or babbling a bunch of holy sounding words hoping God will notice and approve. No, the fundamental truth of Christian prayer is that Jesus loves me, that he is always directly and personally attending to me, that he has made himself present to me, first…

Prayer is the water and fertilizer for faith. It’s how we practice complete reliance on God, and surrender to his good will. Of course it doesn’t happen overnight; it grows slowly over time. Just like a tiny seed grows into a great big tree that can support our entire lives and produce magnificent fruit. “What matters most is not how we practice prayer, but that we don’t stop practicing it.”  

What place does a chapter on prayer have in this book about hospitality? As I hope you can see, prayer is the Christian practice of receiving God’s hospitality–his loving presence–on a continual basis. It’s how we accept God’s provisions that sustain us on our long passage in this world that is not our home.

Thus, when Paul instructs us to “pray without ceasing” he is not encouraging us to a continual output of words and effort, but to a continuous posture receptivity.

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