2 Chron 7:12-14, Then the Lord appeared to Solomon at night and said to him, "I have heard your prayer, and have chosen this place for Myself as a house of sacrifice. If I shut up the heavens so that there is no rain, or if I command the locust to devour the land, or if I send pestilence among My people, and My people who are called by My name humble themselves and pray, and seek My face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, will forgive their sin, and will heal their land. 
As we have made very evident, we are using material adapted from The Battle Plan for Prayer Bible Study Curriculum, developed by Stephen and Alex Kendrick. We are looking at several practical aspects of prayer as the means of the spiritual growth of the Lord’s Church on earth today. 
Many wonderful Christians seek to increase their intimacy with the Lord in prayer, yet they are putting themselves into shackles of their own making because of what was written to the Thessalonian Church by the Apostle Paul in 1 Thess 5:16-18. They are in bondage because of how they are choosing to practice it. As we read it together, please recognize that there are very sensible and urgent aspects to this passage that utterly need our attention, but not necessarily in the manner in which it is often taught. 
1 Thess 5:16-18, Rejoice always; pray without ceasing; in everything give thanks; for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus. As is evident, we are to rejoice and we are to give thanks to the Lord for all things as they present themselves through His sovereignty and His grace and His wisdom and His ruling and overruling power. That should keep us in a constant state of prayer as each moment unfolds in the course of His plan and His purpose being fulfilled in our lives. 
However, there are those who feel that they must be in a constant flurry of vocal prayer at all times, mouthing prayers in a continual manner of muttering, even while dealing with others in their surrounding. Then, when they find that they have missed moments, or hours without voicing their prayers, they are overcome with guilt and self-loathing because they could not fulfill that which they think they should be doing. This becomes a pitfall for them and puts them in a constant state of disappointment which robs them of the joy of their salvation and removes the thanksgiving and the rejoicing that is to characterize the people who know the Lord Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord and Brother. 
We want to consider what it means to pray without ceasing in terms that will be a reassurance that God has made us to live a life of prayer, without frustration and without the need to be critical and depressed and discouraged. It is our ongoing relationship with God that is at the heart of this encouragement by the Apostle Paul to the Church at Thessalonica. This life of prayer unfolds in two aspects. 
We are to have times of scheduled prayer, those specific times that we set aside to pray. As well, we are to always be in the attitude of spontaneous prayer, ever ready to respond to the prompting of the Holy Spirit to pray. It is these two facets of prayer which will keep us in constant communication and fellowship with the Lord in our lives that are to be characterized by prayer and rejoicing and thanksgiving.
We should have those times each day which are set aside for the Lord and our communion with the Lord in prayer. It would be very wise to begin each day in prayer, looking to the Lord to cover the events of the day and to guide us in the course of our daily walk as we meet those who are in need of knowing Him or being encouraged in Him or sharing our rejoicing together in worship and praise and thanksgiving. 
At our meal times, we should always give thanks to the Lord for His gracious mercy and generosity in the provision of our daily sustenance. When we retire for the day, it would behoove us to thank the Lord for His covering of the day and the expectation of what He will bring the next day. It is also a time to reflect on the recent events and how we served Him or need to do better the next time. 
Our weekly gatherings as a fellowship should be times of prayer and adoration and worship as we come together as His family to seek His will and His way in the manner in which we function as His Church. As an aside, we are praying that the Lord would put upon the hearts of all in this room the necessity to come together on Wednesday nights and during our prayer time on Sunday mornings as a means of responding to His call to prayer. We encourage you to ask the Lord to make known what He would desire for your time and your efforts and your energy and your priorities when the church gathers at those specifically scheduled appointments of prayer and supplication as one unto the Lord. The days are not ours, but His and we need to take that very seriously to Him in the priorities of our schedules.
In line with this commitment to God to count Him worthy of our time in scheduled prayer, we have several examples of set appointments to pray before us in scripture. The Psalmist tells us that he had specific periods of each day set aside for prayer unto the Lord, as in Ps 5:3. Ps 5:3, In the morning, O Lord, Thou wilt hear my voice; In the morning I will order my prayer to Thee and eagerly watch. 
In Chapter 55, verse 17, he tells of coming to God in prayer morning, noon, and evening. Ps 55:17, Evening and morning and at noon, I will complain and murmur, And He will hear my voice. 
He also mentioned that he would give up his sleep to spend time with the Lord at midnight in Ps 119:62. He did so because he considered that the Lord was worthy of praise and adoration and thanksgiving for Who He is and all that He has done. Ps 119:62, At midnight I shall rise to give thanks to Thee Because of Thy righteous ordinances. 
Another who practiced scheduled times of prayer was Daniel. Even when he was aware that a trap had been set for him because all those around him knew that he would pray at very specific hours each day, it did not stop him from those dedicated times of fellowship and communion in prayer with the Lord. These times in prayer were more precious to him than his very life, as we read in Dan 6:10+11. 
Dan 6:10+11, Now when Daniel knew that the document was signed, he entered his house (now in his roof chamber he had windows open toward Jerusalem); and he continued kneeling on his knees three times a day, praying and giving thanks before his God, as he had been doing previously. Then these men came by agreement and found Daniel making petition and supplication before his God. 
Despite the decree against praying to anyone but the king, Daniel would not forsake his time of scheduled prayer with the Lord, and was thus sentenced to being thrown into the lion’s den. There, he was shielded by the angel of the Lord from any harm, as but one example of how God responded to the prayers of this prophet.
Christ, Himself, is our example as to the importance of setting aside specific times to pray to Our Heavenly Father. In Luke 5:16, we see that it was known that Jesus would regularly take the time to spend with the Father in prayer. Luke 5:16, But He Himself would often slip away to the wilderness and pray. 
    	Then, in Luke 22:39+40, we have the fact reinforced that this was a continually practice of Christ, which led to His place and time of betrayal. Because Judas Iscariot knew when and were Jesus would be in prayer, he led the soldiers to capture Christ at that appointed time. Luke 22:39+40, And He came out and proceeded as was His custom to the Mount of Olives; and the disciples also followed Him. And when He arrived at the place, He said to them, "Pray that you may not enter into temptation." It was His custom to come to the Mount of Olives in the evening to pray, and this was the scene preceding His betrayal.  
  	The fact of the matter and the truth of our lives is that prayer should be a part of everything we do and woven into every activity we undertake. Accordingly, we should be walking in the awareness of continual prayer operating by the Holy Spirit within us. We will then givie Him the place of honor and reverence by setting aside those times each day which we will not allow to be taken from us and from our communion with Him.
	As well, then, we are to be fully aware and obedient to the prompting of the Holy Spirit to pray as He so directs in the spontaneity of our continuous fellowship and communication with Him. Let us highlight just a few of those times in which we should find ourselves prompted to pray.
	Whenever there is anything new in our lives, we should be impelled to pray in dedication to the Lord. A new child, a new house, a new car, a new job, a new friend, anything and everything that is new to us should be a time of reflection on the grace and the mercy and the faithfulness and the joy of the Lord and be dedicated to Him. Let the freshness of each gift and opportunity prompt us to honor the Lord with our immediate prayer.
	Whenever needs arise, we should be lifting it up in prayer as so modeled for us by Christ in His prayer recorded in Matt 6:11, 'Give us this day our daily bread. We are to go to the Lord God, Jehovah Jirah, Our Provider as any need arises and ask Him to make the every provision according to His gracious plan and endless supply. 
	When we face those times of confusion or when we just don’t know what to do, we are to freely ask God to give us clarity of mind and direction as would please Him in the course of each decision.
When we are in crisis or stress or in situations that require wisdom and understanding, we should be asking Him to be everything that we need. We pray that He will be our wisdom and our peace and our comfort and our calming influence to allow us to see Him at work, as so encouraged by the Apostle Paul in Phil 4:6+7. 
Phil 4:6+7, Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, shall guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. 
	Whenever we are blessed, we should take the time to immediately give Him thanksgiving, and give Him the credit and the praise and the honor of our sincere joy that He would so graciously consider us in His heart. We should look for those blessings and rejoice in them in prayer, in grateful communication with Our Loving Lord God Almighty.
	Whenever we are burdened for ourselves or for others, we should immediately go to the Lord and not put it off for later. Specifically, when people ask us to pray for them, we should ask them if we could pray with them right then and there and hold them before the throne of God’s grace and mercy and power and love. We then do so every time the Lord puts them on our hearts through the days and weeks and months and even decades that follow.
	As we read His Word, we should do so with that urgent prompting of the Holy Spirit in prayer. We ask Him, as we read each word, to make it real and living and effectively working in us to change us and to bring us into greater alignment with His plan and His purpose in our understanding and increasing depth of the knowledge of God.
	These are just a few of those times of the prompting of the Holy Spirit to prayer that we will encounter as we truly seek the Lord to teach us to pray more effectively. We will see our lives being filled with prayer in the reality that the most important aspect of our prayer life is to know God and His Word. There will be a developing consistency and discipline in our ongoing relationship and intimacy with God. We will know that God not only hears our prayers but answers them according to His divine wisdom and grace, as evidenced throughout all the examples in His Word and in our lives to this point.
	We need to guard our life of prayer with every personal endeavor, not allowing ourselves to become complacent and ritualistic in the course of our prayers, both scheduled and spontaneous. We need to realize that it takes work and it takes effort and it takes commitment and it takes persistence to practice effective prayer because it is a spiritual endeavor of immense proportions.
	The truth is that when we pray aright, when we pray after the heart of God, in obedient reverence and in accordance with the desire to truly honor Him, we are engaged in an encounter with the Holy Lord God Almighty. That should bring forth discomfort to our mortal beings since we are trafficking in something that is utterly foreign to us. We often try to make prayer something that we are in charge of, fitting it into the category of something that we control. 
But the reality is that we are coming, in humbleness and in sincerity and in the confession that we are not worthy to be in the presence of the Most Holy Lord God Almighty. He is the One Who has brought us into His presence by the lifeblood of His Son and through the ministry of His Holy Spirit. He is the One Who is in control, and we best place ourselves under the mighty working of His Hands. We need to be utterly in awe and amazement that He wants to spend time with us in prayer continuously; that He desires to have this living relationship with such as ourselves.
We must constantly keep before us that it is a privilege to talk with and to commune with the Living Lord God Almighty, Creator of Heaven and earth. It is no small or insignificant thing to be able to pray to the Lord. We need to ask Him to remind us that He is to be honored in both our specific time of prayer as well as in the spontaneity of the Holy Spirit’s prompting. In these truths, our lives will become characterized by constant prayer and fellowship with Our Lord and Savior. In that light, we will come to recognize that we do Rejoice always; pray without ceasing; in everything give thanks; for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus. So be it and Amen! 

			

This morning’s benediction is Ps 113:1+2. Praise the Lord! Praise, O servants of the Lord. Praise the name of the Lord. Blessed be the name of the Lord From this time forth and forever. Amen.