Day 03

“Prayer as Jesus Demonstrated”
“Rejoice always, pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.” (1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 NIV).

OUR THINKING around prayer, whether right or wrong, is always based on our own mental con-
ception of it. The manner in which Jesus demonstrated prayer encourages us to think of prayer as the breath in our lungs and the blood from our hearts. Our blood flows and our breathing continues “continually”, we are not even conscious of it, but it never stops. And we are not always conscious of Jesus keeping us in unity with His Spirit, but as we develop in our spiritual growth and follow His lead, He is in the details of our every breath. Prayer is not an exercise, it is the life of the believing follower. Develop your awareness of the things around you that stops prayer from giving you Life in each moment.“Pray continually”—focus your attention on the childlike habit of offering up prayer in your heart to your Heavenly Father all the time. Jesus never mentioned unanswered prayer during His ministry in flesh. He demonstrated and declared unlimited certainty that prayer is always answered. Are we allowing the empowering presence of the Holy Spirit to give us “the knowing” Jesus demonstrated in His flesh, or do we think of the times when it seemed that God did not answer our prayer? Jesus said, “For everyone who asks, receives…” (Matt. 7:8 NLT). Yet we often yield to our temptation to say, “But…, but…” God always answers prayer in the best way—not just sometimes, but every time. However, the evidence of the answer in the area we want it may not always immediately follow. The real question that we need to answer is, “Do we expect God to answer prayer?” We often yield to the dangerous temptation to water down what Jesus said to make it mean something that aligns with our common sense. But if it were only common sense, what He said would not even be worthwhile. The things Jesus taught about prayer are always supernatural truths He reveals to us through His revelatory Spirit presence. Thus, the reason for continual prayer, true childlike connection with our Father in His Spirit.