“Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.” -1 Thessalonians 5:16-18

There is a mandate for Christians to pray without ceasing, but this can be difficult for most people. We have been taught by the modern church that prayer is a form of communication with God, where we ask Him for what we need and He will give it to us in return. Matthew  7:7-8 says: “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened”. It is as Matthew 7:7-8 declares – the Lord does hear, open doors, answer prayers. There are rules to approaching Him, however. This may be something we do not like to hear, but Jesus tells us that we have access to the Father through Jesus Christ himself.

“But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. […] For through him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father” -Ephesians 2:13-22 (emphasis mine). 

When Jesus walked the earth, He told those who were listening: “Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of his own accord, but only what he sees the Father doing. For whatever the Father does, that the Son does likewise. For the Father loves the Son and shows him all that he himself is doing. And greater works than these will he show him, so that you may marvel.” -John 5:19-20. Jesus can only do what the Father does. He is the one who has direct access to Him; He is the one who knows the works of the Father yet to come. 

These verses tell us something about the structure of our prayers: when we pray to our Lord, we should model our prayers in the ways that Jesus prayed. He taught us to pray in Matthew 6: 5-13: “And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by others. Truly, I tell you, they have received their reward in full. But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you. And when you pray, do not keep babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words. Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him. This, then, is how you should pray: Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us today our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.” 

The way in which Jesus teaches prayer in Matthew 6 is how we are supposed to pray. We are to approach the throne of God, knowing that He already knows our need (as we read in Matthew 6:8), praying for God’s kingdom to come and God’s will to be done on earth as it is in heaven. Taking these verses in culmination, we can see a pattern emerge: Jesus only does what He sees His Father doing – He knows the heart of His Father and what pleases Him. Jesus used a pattern of prayer and we are called to pray as He did. In doing so, we not only pray for the will of God to come to pass (your kingdom come, your will be done), but we also make sure we are in right standing with Him – cleansed – every day, anew and afresh (forgive us our debts). Isaiah 30:15 teaches “In repentance and rest is your salvation, in quietness and trust is your strength…” (emphasis mine). Indeed, our sins cannot be forgiven, if the Father sees unforgiveness in our own hearts, as it says in Matthew 6:14-15 “For if you forgive other people when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive others their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins.” (emphasis mine; see also the Parable of the Unforgiving Servant in Matthew 18:21-35).

God made a way for us to enter into communion with Him through Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross (Colossians 1:19-20, “For in him [Jesus] all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross”). Through Jesus, as Ephesians 2:13-18 tells us, we have access to God. Our membership to the Kingdom of heaven is hinged on our salvation in Christ Jesus. So it is with our prayers. 

Praying without ceasing is a mandate for us Christians – and we have been gifted with a pattern through which we can model our prayers after. The Bible also makes it very clear through whom we have access to God and how He acknowledges our prayers. Through these verses, we quickly see that our prayers have to be in accordance – in alignment – with the person of Jesus and what He taught while He was on earth. Praying in this manner will allow for what we pray to come to pass – for in accordance to His Word – what He says shall come to pass in Jesus’ name.

“God is not man, that he should lie, or son of man, that he should change his mind. Has he said, and will he not do it? Or has he spoken, and will he not fulfill it?” – Numbers 23:19 

Let us therefore remember that He is the vine, and we are the branches. “Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.” (John 15:5, emphasis mine). Let us approach the throne boldly (Hebrews 4:16), praying the patterned prayer of our Savior Jesus, thereby giving us access through Him to the Heavenly Father, whose face shines towards us and is gracious to us. Through our approach, we will be able to pray ceaselessly – and He will turn His face towards us, gifting us with peace (Numbers 6:25-26).