Like me, you may be more intimidated than inspired by stories of figures like Martin Luther rising before dawn to get in three hours of prayer before the day began. These examples seem utterly unattainable for the ‘normal’ believer. Yet even Luther’s early morning vigil falls a long way short of the call to “pray without ceasing” (1 Thess. 5v17). If we can’t even manage three hours a day, what hope do we have for prayer that never ends?
This is not a new question for believers. Roughly 1,600 years ago the North African pastor, Augustine, was wrestling with just that. His reflections, especially on Jesus’ teaching in Matthew 6, give us cause to rethink what ‘counts’ as prayer.
Prayer is a disposition of the heart
Embedded in the middle of the Sermon on the Mount (where Jesus famously reframes external practices in light of the deeper state of the heart), His teaching on prayer moves us away from thinking first and foremost about what we say and when we say it. Instead, prayer has at its foundation a disposition of the heart towards God.
In a letter to a wealthy widow named Proba, Augustine writes that prayer begins when we recognise our spiritual destitution. The disposition of prayer is the spiritual hunger and thirst of the poor, the mourning, and the meek (Matt.5v3-6).
Though some of us, like Proba, may enjoy relative material wealth and comfort in this life, we are all deeply in need of God. He is our only true source of life and happiness. Every good thing comes from Him. But more importantly, as long as we are “away from the Lord” (2 Cor. 5v6), awaiting the day when we will see Him face to face, we are truly destitute.
Leading with this “why” of prayer, Augustine shows that perseverance in prayer does not come primarily from diary planning. Instead, it is by constantly cultivating this deep sense of need directed towards God in faith that we can pursue ceaseless prayer in faithful, but ordinary, human lives.
Praying aloud is necessary
Nevertheless, aware of the weakness of our hearts, Augustine says times set aside to pray aloud play a vital role in ceaseless prayer. Indeed, Jesus’ own teaching features a prayer designed to be recited aloud (Matt. 6v9-13). So Augustine commends to Proba regular daily times of audible prayer. This is what stirs up our desire for God, warding off the cooling effects of the cares and distractions of everyday life, reminding us of our truest need. “Words, then,” he writes, “are necessary for us so that we may be roused and may take note of what we are asking, but we are not to believe that the Lord has any need of them, either to be informed or to be influenced.”
We ought to express our needs aloud not because this is the essence of prayer – God already knows what we need (Matt. 6v7-8) – but because we need the constant reminder that such words provide. These set times recalibrate our hearts towards humble dependence upon God so that at all times we might adopt a posture of prayerful dependence, bringing our need to our Father who knows and cares.
So now, pray without ceasing through the silent directing of your thoughts to God as you become aware of needs, through the wordless groans which God’s Spirit provides when you can’t even articulate the need in your own mind (Rom. 8v26), through the quiet awareness of God’s presence and provision in your daily work, rest, chores, and play. And let praying aloud, alone and with others, stir your heart again towards our heavenly Father who is Himself our ultimate need.
