Without Ceasing

Look through any photo album. It's going to be full of photo's of those special occasions. The wedding, the newborn, the first house - though maybe not in that order. It's the same with relationships. The stand-out memories are that first moment, a first kiss, the first - well, ok, you get the idea. These are the poles in the ground that support the tent of the relationship. They give it the framework, the structure, but they're not the relationship, they're not the tent. The tent is the fabric made from thousands of small threads. A canvas woven not out of one or two strong cords, but out of a multitude of tiny, impossibly weak, strands. A relationship that lasts is not founded on the spectacular events - the things that make the album, but on the countless shared experiences, the innumerable mundane joint tasks, the multitude of seemingly banal conversations. And these don't have to be dull or meaningless. Rather the love on which the relationship is based enriches and gives meaning to the otherwise routine. They reinforce the common values, they provide the conetxt into which quality moments occur that ultimately define the relationship.

God created you because he wanted you to experience the extraordinary love that He already experiences within the trinity. God wants to have relationship, loving relationship with Him. Of course there will be the pivotal, intense moments. That first decision to follow Jesus, being filled with His Spirit, the first time you see someone healed, a spectacular victory over temptation. But the fabric of the relationship, the trust, the joy, the peace, is rooted in the moment by moment presence. And that is what prayer is, it is the means by which we make relationship with God real. This is what Paul means when he says we should pray without ceasing. It's the breathing of our spiritual life.

You're walking to work, reviewing the day ahead. Consciously bring God into it. 'Lord, this is what I think the today's priorities are, is that how you see it - what am I missing? And by the way, that is a fab looking sky'. And you get that gentle nudge - take this route, not the normal one. So you turn left not right and bump into someone you know. 'Wow' you say (coffee hasn't yet kicked in) 'that's a coincidence, I was just praying for them last night'. You chat for a few moments not realising how significant that conversation will be later in the day. It's then that God gives you that gentle sense that your agenda is going to be turned upside down and not to fret about it. You arrive at work to discover there's a power cut. No computer, no internet, no email, no panic - you were forewarned. The simple things, making faith real, bringing the presence of God into the present.

Of course there are other times when our praying takes a different, intercession and spiritual warfare - more on those later.