Hosanna Restoration Church

“Never hang up!” Jesus never hung up. He kept the line open with His Father. He knew the way because He is the Way. When he talked about prayer or taught about prayer; He said, “When you pray! There was no question about praying. He did not say, if you pray. He knew we would have to pray.
If we reduce our prayer life to emergency prayers, our assurance level is in the zero range. However, if we never hang up, if we never close the line of communication it changes everything.
In the beginning, the idea of prayer without ceasing can be a bit ominous. How in the world can we pray all the time? Well considering that the Lord knows our very thoughts, it is not so hard to imagine that He has His end of the line open. And since He does not hang up we should be able to keep our line open as well.
If we are with friends our minds may wander, but don’t usually shut them out! We hear them even if they have to speak a couple of times to get our attention. You know we do have such a friend in Jesus and if the line is open, it is a lot easier for Him to get our attention!
As you know, prayer is communication. It is walking, running, driving, busy, resting, and in all things at all times; communication.
How can we always be joyful? We can remember that Jesus is on the line and His goal is that our joy might be full. How can we be thankful in all circumstances? Jesus is on the line and He loves the sound of our lips giving thanks. When we understand that our thanks to God is fruitful in ways that are beyond what we can even imagine, we can thank more and rejoice more in anticipation of His plans.
Of course the key is to never stop praying because we know He never stops working! When we get past the idea that prayer is only on our face somewhere for hours on end and move into praying about everything at the moment in a moment, it really does raise our confidence and assurance level.
When we can imagine that only a moment of sincere prayer can produce more than hours of trying to pray, it changes how we look at prayer. I am not saying that prayer is always quick; I am saying that it can be. When we are confident in prayer it makes long periods easier as well.
Without confidence, we are never really sure if we have prayed right or done enough. If we are not sure, we can wonder why we bother which can deceive us into not bothering. Never stop!