LEARNING DAILY

 

1 Samuel 7:8, So the children of Israel said to Samuel, “Do not cease to cry out to the Lord our God for us, that He may save us from the hand of the Philistines.”

 

1 Thessalonians 5:17, pray without ceasing

 

Samuel is now the prophet of God and is judging Israel. He emphasizes to the people an important biblical principle; if they expect to receive God’s protection and deliverance from their enemies, they must turn to Him with all their hearts and put away their idols and no longer compromise their lifestyle. Read the opening verses of 1 Samuel 7 and you will see that Israel has repented and put away the idols they had been worshipping. They have gathered together at Mizpah to fast and pray together before the Lord. The Philistines heard about this gathering of Israel and believe this to be an opportunity to eliminate Israel. The gathering enemy causes great fear for Israel and they tell Samuel, “Do not cease to cry out to the Lord our God for us, that He may save us from the hand of the Philistines.”  

 

As Christians we continue to have an adversary; his name is Satan, Lucifer, the Deceiver, the devil. He hates every Christian because they have each professed their faith and bow down to Jesus Christ as the Son of God, the true King. It is his desire to destroy every Believer, to destroy his belief in Jesus. He comes to destroy as the Philistines did. For you and me to be victorious over our spiritual adversaries as we walk the narrow way to God’s kingdom, we must be dependent on unceasing prayer to God. The people told Samuel not to cease praying. Paul in 1 Thessalonians told us “to pray without ceasing”. Prayer best not be taken lightly or taken for granted! “Prayer brings God into every aspect of our lives: our work, plans, family, problems and successes. To fail to pray opens us up to Satan’s attack and our defeat” (LSSB). Stan is not that “cute” cartoon figure with the pitchfork. He is an adversary none of us can defeat in our own power!

 

Paul’s exhortation was not a call to walk around uttering formal prayers; it was to be living a life characterized by prayer. It is to have a constant conversation with God in our hearts. This would be in all sorts of occasions that occur during the day – our conversations, our desires, our actions. You need to notice these are not emergency situations only. Our focus becomes centered on Him not ourselves and not our situations. This type of prayer is having a conversation with our Father in heaven. It is being real with Him, where we are thankful for the things He has done for us or given to us. It is prayer where we acknowledge the things He already knows and to talk to Him about the things we have messed up on (confession is good for us!). Praying without ceasing also helps us to stop worrying about things beyond our control. We all need to work on this. There is another aspect to consider – we need to stop talking from time to time in order to just be in the Father’s presence, to sense His nearness, to sense His love for us. This will help to know and understand that prayer is not about you and me; it is about God! These are some great thoughts about “praying without ceasing” from an article from Crosswalk.com.

 

Don’t wait for the enemy to come, to surround you seeking victory over you. Begin right now to pray about your personal situation, for your family, for your prodigal child or relative, about everything. The father in heaven desires to hear from you, His child, and everything that you are doing. Go ahead, take some time to just thank Him for including you in His family and that you are on the way to eternal life in His kingdom. Go ahead!

 

From now on DJSB will be used to note information or quotes from the David Jeremiah Study Bible and LSSB will refer to information and quotes from the Life in the Spirit Study Bible.  I have added Jimmy Swaggart’s Expositor’s Study Bible to be referred to from now on as JSESB.