Prayer

There is a verse I recently read in 1 Thessalonians. It was 1 Thessalonians 5:17 and the verse says this, "Pray without ceasing." There is so much power in those three words. I know personally for me, prayer was something that did not come easy to me at first, until I changed my perspective on it. There is no right or wrong way to pray. You can pray in your car driving to work or school, you can pray in your room while you're in the middle of worshipping God, you can pray before meals, you can pray in the morning when you wake up or at night before you go to bed, you can pray ANY TIME of the day ANYWHERE. When I pray, I talk to God like I would be talking to Him if he were standing in front of me. I talk to Him like a friend. I always begin my prayer by thanking Him for all he is done in my life recently and all the amazing things he continuously does for me. I then pray for anyone who is on my heart and mind that I know needs prayer or that has asked me to pray for them. I then pray for myself. Your prayer can be 1 minute or it can be 10 minutes. Whatever the Spirit is leading you to do, allow it. No prayer is wrong or right. I want to get back to the verse though, "pray without ceasing". This means that no matter what situation you are in you should be praying to God. That means you don't just come to God in prayer when you are going through hard times, but you pray to Him in the good times too. You come to Him in prayer when you have praises. Praises are good things that are happening in your life. I'm here to tell you those good things happened because God allowed them to. Since that verse was so short, I decided I wanted to go look at the surrounding verses, and here is what I found. 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18, "Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, in everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you." Man is there power in those verses. There are a couple of words I want to point out from those three verses. ALWAYS. WITHOUT CEASING. IN EVERYTHING. It doesn't say rejoice when you're having a good day or you hear good news. It doesn't say pray whenever you feel like it. It doesn't say to give thanks when something good happens in your life. It says, ALWAYS, WITHOUT CEASING, AND IN EVERYTHING. Those words mean ALL THE TIME. Want to know why? Because GOD IS GOOD ALL THE TIME. He isn't just good when life is going the way you want it to. He isn't just good when you got that job you wanted. He isn't good when you have been single for years and you finally meet a man/woman. He is good ALL THE TIME. I want to encourage you to write this verse down somewhere and meditate on it daily. Each day wake up and tell yourself, "I am going to rejoice today, and pray to God no matter what my situation, and I am going to thank Him for everything he has done because I don't deserve any of it." I know this is something I have been working on. I recently posted a blog about unanswered prayers and how frustrating it can be. I wanna ask you, during those prayers to God, did you also stop and thank Him for the good things he has provided in your life, not just the unanswered prayer requests you had? I know I've been guilty of it, which is why I told you guys at the beginning how I've been praying to God. There is a verse in James that states "Everything good comes from God." Meaning that when things start going well in your life, it's not just because you did something to earn it, it's because God gave it to you and allowed for you to have it. Be thankful for that. But also be thankful when God doesn't give you something you wanted because there is a reason for that. Rejoice ALWAYS. Pray WITHOUT CEASING. Give thanks IN EVERYTHING. I pray each and every one of you reading this will rejoice God for everything he has given you, pray to Him no matter the situation, and thank Him for everything he has given you. I pray this message spoke to your heart. I pray you guys to continue to grow in your faith and grow in your knowledge of how AMAZING our Father in Heaven truly is. I love you guys and I'm praying for you <3