“Our prayers & God’s mercy are like two buckets in a well. One ascends, and one descends. Our prayers ascend to God in heaven, and his mercies and blessings descend to us”

Ezekiel Hopkins , Works III. 582 – 585

The Scriptures teach us to pray without ceasing. This implies that we should always be praying. To pray without ceasing does not mean that I am kneeling all the time & praying. Rather it means that I have, first of all, set aside time to pray regularly (as Daniel did). It means to pray with emotion & readiness. I must labor & persevere. Nobody said that praying is easy. It is not. It requires diligence & a commitment to do it. To pray without ceasing means that I take every opportunity that is presented to me throughout the day to offer up to God thanksgiving. I can do this if I meditate on God & on His Word. To pray without ceasing means that I must keep & guard my heart so that I can pray, so that I am ready to pray.

Ezekiel Hopkins (1633 – 1689) says, that in order to seek God’s face before the throne of grace, we must do 2 things.

1. Do not be too much involved in the business and pleasures of this life because the affections of the world will stifle and extinguish our ardor for communion with God.

2. I n order to maintain a praying frame of mind we must be careful not to fall into the committing of any known or presumptuous sin. The guilt of sin will deaden the conscience and kill prayer.

So we must learn to pray like this. It requires effort, but the Lord will bless the efforts of a willing heart.