 Hey guys I want to come to you and kind of cover something that has been a bit of an issue. I've been accused of not praying, not even really caring about praying and that I ought to open up when we come and have these video discussions, be it a live stream or something over a particular topic that I ought to open it up in prayer. Now I've said before that for the most part I'll pray before I come on and I'm actually assuming that you will have prayed also but for some people that that's not good enough and made me think of something and I've had this discussion with people many times before about their prayer life and what I've said to them is that you're doing it all wrong even that would cause some folks even want to criticize how I do this. The reason why is because your prayer life is all wrong. Here's what I mean in 1 Thessalonians 5 17 we're told in verse 16 rejoice always for 17 pray without ceasing give thanks in all circumstances for this is the will of God and Christ Jesus for you. Now what I want to focus on is this word here um ceasing okay this adverb ceasing we ought this is how we ought to pray it is a command for us to pray without ceasing what does that mean it means non stop there's no reason to even do a real deep dive into the word it just means non stop you all know what it means to not cease how in the world can a person continue to pray just pray without ceasing well this is the problem where and why most people's prayer lives just aren't worth anything if you think your prayer life let me just put it this way forgive me if you have a hard time with hearing this word but if your prayer life sucks here's the reason why because you have made prayer an event it is something to do I've got to take time out of my day out of my life to pray where no the way they're supposed to go is you should have a continual line of prayer open I'm constantly speaking to you Lord I'm constantly if there's any sort of guiding um of me from you then amen I'm open to that I don't have to you know what let me stop let me get on my knees put my hands together let me close my eyes let me bow my head and oh father I make it have to be some sort of grand event well it's just my normal routine my normal course of living this is what I do I speak to God I I regurgitate his word I read his word I try to get closer that is my normal routine and so therefore it's not an event think about this guys how many times how many times when Jesus goes to speak to the people do we see him stopping before he speaks just before he stops and speaks to them that he stops and prays hold on guys before I give you this word father god no he didn't do that or how many times do we see the apostles when they began to speak with someone do they stop and then pray and then talk to the people no but you know we know we know they had a prayer life you know we know that the line of communication was open that they were the ones who were praying without ceasing after all this is paul writing first that's the loneliness he's saying to pray without ceasing do we think paul prayed without ceasing I think it's safe to assume that paul prayed without ceasing and what paul didn't do before he said this paul didn't pray before he said this hold on let me pray first all right guys now pray without ceasing no because paul had a continual prayer life going on him prayer was not some special event for him no it was a normal event you all hear what I'm saying the reason why your prayer life might not be what you think it ought to be the reason why you don't feel like you're getting anywhere with your prayer it might be because prayer is something that you do rather than how you live it's an event rather than the norm it's a it's something special and if it's special well then that might be your problem look no further than that but if it's something that you normally do I don't care what you're doing I don't care if you're in the kitchen at the stove if you're on the microwave you I'm talking to God I'm I'm I'm telling the Lord how I feel he already knows how I feel I'm telling what I think he already knows what I think Lord I just love you so the point I want to leave you with is this if you don't hear anything else off of any other videos hear this make prayer a normal thing rather than a special thing make it a part of your daily living versus an event and then see how far God takes you amen