Topics · Prayer · Lesson 6 of 6
Hours, Doors and Fellowships: Praying Without Ceasing
How do I pray "without ceasing", and for whom?
By the end of this lesson you should be able to
- Explain what 'pray without ceasing' meant in 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 and compare three early readings of it.
- Identify the daily rhythm of prayer in Daniel 6:10 and Acts 3:1 and its Old Testament background.
- Trace what Paul asks the Colossians to pray for in Colossians 4:2-4, and what he leaves unasked.
- Compare how the Moravians, the Fulton Street meeting, Korean Christians and the East African fellowships organised prayer for others.
Scripture at the center
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Tap a reference to read it, then come back to the lesson.
Background
Paul's command is short and has been argued over ever since: 'Pray without ceasing.' Taken literally it seems impossible, and the first readers also worked, slept and travelled. The Bible answers by showing how people prayed: at appointed times (Daniel, the temple hours), repeatedly and faithfully (Paul's reports of his prayers for the churches), and together (the early church in Acts). The question has a second half: for whom? Paul asks the Colossians to pray for him, and the purpose is that Christ's message reaches others.
The settings differ. is set in Babylon after the exile began, when no temple stood in Jerusalem; Daniel prays toward the city, as Solomon's prayer pictured exiles doing (). In the temple still stands, and Peter and John keep the Jewish hour of prayer; the ninth hour is about three in the afternoon, the time of the daily afternoon offering (). 1 Thessalonians is probably Paul's earliest surviving letter, to a young church under pressure. Colossians was written from prison, traditionally Rome.
Interpreters disagree on whether 'without ceasing' is a figure for faithful regularity or a call to continuous prayer. Didache 8 tells believers to pray the Lord's Prayer three times a day.
Outline
- Three times a day, toward Jerusalem
- The ninth hour at the temple
- Rejoice, pray, give thanks
- Devoted to prayer, and for whom
How to read it
is a string of short commands near the letter's close, not a treatise on method. The Greek adverb adialeiptōs, 'without a gap', is one Paul uses of his own praying for churches (; ), where he plainly means recurring mention, not unbroken speech. The command is best read as 'regular and unfailing', joined to joy and thanks.
and are narrative, so they describe. Daniel's three times a day and his open window are the habit of a Jew in exile, and Peter and John at the ninth hour show the apostles keeping the temple's hours. Neither passage fixes a number of daily prayers for all believers. Paul's requests for prayer are specific and written to a church, so they show what praying for others is for.
Read first as the first hearers did, then with Christ: the New Testament places prayer in Jesus' name () and in his heavenly intercession ().
What the Scriptures say
Three times a day, toward Jerusalem
The king's decree forbids prayer to anyone but the king for thirty days (). When Daniel learned that the document had been signed, 'he went into his house, where the windows of his upper room opened toward Jerusalem, and three times a day he got down on his knees, prayed, and gave thanks to his God, just as he had done before.' Three details matter. The prayer is habit, not reaction: 'just as he had done before'. It faces Jerusalem, where God had set his name. And it includes thanks, on a day his life is in danger.
The story moves to the lions' den and to King Darius' confession of Daniel's God (). Daniel is a figure of the faithful witness whose steady prayer sustains his public courage. A tentative echo: the stone sealed over the den () and the sealed tomb (). For Christians the direction of prayer changes: Jesus speaks of his body as the temple ().
The ninth hour at the temple
Luke says: 'One afternoon Peter and John were going up to the temple at the hour of prayer, the ninth hour.' This is a fixed, public time. Luke has already said that the first believers devoted themselves to prayers and met daily in the temple courts (, ). After Pentecost the apostles do not leave Israel's rhythm; they fill it. The healing of the man lame from birth () happens on the way in, so the hour of prayer is where the church's witness meets a need, in the name of Jesus Christ.
The same rhythm appears elsewhere: Peter prays on a roof at the sixth hour (), and Cornelius at the ninth (, ). Tertullian (On Prayer 25) and Cyprian later name the third, sixth and ninth hours. A connection Luke does not draw: Jesus cried out and died about the ninth hour (), the hour of the afternoon offering.
Rejoice, pray, give thanks
Paul gives three short commands: 'Rejoice at all times. Pray without ceasing. Give thanks in every circumstance, for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus.' The 'you' is plural: a church. Joy, prayer and thanks are meant to run together, and the reason is given last: this is God's will 'in Christ Jesus', so the life of prayer belongs to the life of union with him.
Early readers took the command in different ways. Origen read it as a whole life in which prayer is joined to duties and duties to prayer, one long prayer. Augustine, in his letter to Proba, said that unbroken desire for the happy life that God gives is continuous prayer, and that words at set hours fan that desire so that it does not go cold. In the Eastern churches the verse is often cited behind the Jesus Prayer, a short prayer repeated through the day.
Christ is the first example. He withdrew to pray (), spent a night in prayer (), and now always lives to intercede ().
Devoted to prayer, and for whom
'Devote yourselves to prayer, being watchful and thankful.' The verb proskartereō means to stick at something with persistence; Luke uses it for the first believers (; ). 'Watchful' means staying awake and recalls Jesus' words in Gethsemane (). Then Paul asks: 'as you pray also for us, that God may open to us a door for the word, so that we may proclaim the mystery of Christ, for which I am in chains. Pray that I may declare it clearly, as I should.'
Note what Paul requests: an open door for the message, and clarity in speaking. He does not ask for release from prison, though in Philemon 22 he hopes to be restored to his friends in answer to their prayers. Prayer for others is aimed at Christ's message. The pattern recurs: (for all the saints, and for Paul, an ambassador in chains), , (that the word may spread). The church also prays together for a prisoner, Peter (), and widens the circle to all people and those in authority. The church's intercession shares in Christ's ().
Key terms
- without ceasing adialeiptōs
- Without a gap or break. Paul uses it of his own recurring prayers for churches ().
- devote yourselves proskartereō
- To persist in something, to stay at it. Used of the first believers' prayer ().
- watchful grēgoreō
- To stay awake, be alert; the word Jesus uses of the disciples in Gethsemane.
- door thura
- An opening for the gospel to enter; in Paul's usage a gift of God's action, not a human achievement.
- mystery mystērion
- What was hidden in God's plan and has now been made known: Christ among the nations ().
In the whole Bible
Set times of prayer run through the Old Testament: morning, noon and evening (), and seven times a day for praise (). Intercession is a duty: Samuel tells Israel that to stop praying for them would be sin (), and Jeremiah tells the exiles to pray for the city where they live ().
The New Testament carries these into the church. Jesus teaches persistence (). Believers are to pray on every occasion for all the saints (), and for all people (). The prayers of the saints are likened to incense (; ), which links to the altar fire that was never to go out (). The church is a royal priesthood (, ), and its prayers are priestly: offered for others, through Christ.
Where Christ is
Jesus lived this. He rose before dawn to pray (), spent a night in prayer before choosing the Twelve (), and prayed for individuals by name, as for Simon Peter (). In he prays for the disciples and for those who will believe through their message (), which is the scope of the church's later intercession.
The New Testament does not add the church's intercession to Christ's work; it joins it to his. He is the one mediator () and he intercedes at God's right hand (; ). Believers pray in his name and through him (; ). Two tentative echoes: the ninth hour of the temple's prayer and the hour of Jesus' death (), and the sealed den and the sealed tomb. Luke and Matthew do not draw either line.
How traditions read it
Two points divide Christian traditions here.
Set hours or free prayer. The Catholic Liturgy of the Hours, Orthodox daily offices and the Anglican Book of Common Prayer (Morning and Evening Prayer, shaped by Thomas Cranmer) carry on the old rhythm of fixed times, with monastic communities keeping prayer through the day and night. John Bunyan's I Will Pray with the Spirit (c. 1662-63) defends free, Spirit-led prayer against compulsory forms, and many Baptist and free churches follow that line. Both appeal to .
Whom to ask for prayer. Catholic and Orthodox Christians ask Mary and the saints in heaven to pray with them, as fellow members of the one body of Christ. Protestant churches generally hold that Christ is the one mediator () and pray to God alone, while asking living believers to pray; Calvin argues this in Institutes 3.20.20-27 and the Westminster Confession (chapter 21) states it. The texts studied here show Paul asking living believers to pray, and say nothing on the further question. The lesson follows the texts.
How praying people lived this
The Moravians at Herrnhut from 1727 · Moravian
After bitter quarrels in the community on Count Zinzendorf's estate, a communion service at Berthelsdorf on 13 August 1727 ended in a sense of unity. On 26 August twenty-four brethren and as many sisters agreed to divide the twenty-four hours between them by lot, and the plan began the next day. More joined until there were seventy-seven, and the intercessors met weekly and were given subjects for prayer. Their warrant was the altar fire of .
Caveat: popular accounts say the prayer never stopped for a hundred years. Hutton says only that it is said to have lasted over a century, and no roster has been found; the sources support 'the practice continued for generations'.
The principle: Intercession was set up as a shared discipline with an assigned hour, not left to mood.
“the Brethren resolved that in this new temple of the Lord the incense of intercessory prayer should rise continually day and night”
The Fulton Street prayer meeting from 1857 · Dutch Reformed, interdenominational
Jeremiah Lanphier, a city missionary of the North Dutch Reformed Church, began a noon prayer meeting in New York on 23 September 1857, for business men who took that hour for rest. Six came on the first day. There was singing, prayer and testimony, with no preaching; people came and went as they could, and prayers were kept short. By October it met daily. Samuel Prime described it in The Power of Prayer (1859).
Caveat: later estimates of attendance are enthusiastic, and Kathryn Long argues that clergy and the press shaped the story.
The principle: A lay-led meeting with short, specific prayers, open to all denominations, could be repeated daily.
“no one was to occupy more than five minutes in remarks, or prayer”
Korean Christians at Pyongyang 1907 onward · Presbyterian, with Methodist participation
Before the January 1907 Bible class in Pyongyang, missionaries met nightly to pray, and daily at noon once the class opened. On the revival night, according to William Blair's 1910 report, Graham Lee called for prayers, so many began that the whole audience prayed aloud together, and confession and weeping followed. Later histories say early-morning and all-night prayer became marks of Korean Protestant life, with the pastor Gil Seon-ju (1869-1935) credited as a pioneer of dawn prayer.
Caveat: Blair is a missionary report, and the dawn-prayer attribution rests on later scholarship not checked directly here.
The principle: Prayer was joint, audible and joined to confession and reconciliation.
“The prayer sounded to me like the falling of many waters, an ocean of prayer beating against God's throne.”
The Balokole fellowships of East Africa 1930s onward · Anglican, later across denominations
In Rwanda and Uganda from the 1930s, lay Christians met in fellowships several times a week to pray, confess sin, give testimony and plan evangelism. Named leaders include Simeoni Nsibambi (1897-1978), Blasio Kigozi (1909-1936), Yosiya Kinuka (1905-1981) and William Nagenda (1912-1973); Nagenda's student group at Mukono met early in the morning for prayer. Women led meetings and prayed. Members spoke of 'walking in the light': honest sharing of failures among the brethren.
Caveat: the movement was divided over discipline, and public confession could be a pressure. Names are spelled variously, and Ugandan Christians should review this entry.
The principle: Here the prayer meeting is a place of honesty and reconciliation as well as asking.
“One way in which this is expressed is through walking in the light.”
Brother Lawrence c. 1611-1691 · Catholic (Discalced Carmelite lay brother)
Nicolas Herman of Lorraine, a former footman and soldier, entered the Carmelite house in Paris as a lay brother in 1666 and worked in the kitchen. His conversations and letters were gathered as The Practice of the Presence of God. He reports four years of inward distress, from fear of being lost, before a settled peace. He kept the community's set hours of prayer and said they were no different in kind from the rest of his day.
Caveat: others assembled the book, and scholars debate how much of its shape is his.
The principle: Set hours and constant attention to God are one exercise, not two.
“As for my set hours of prayer, they are only a continuation of the same exercise.”
Review questions
- What three details in show that Daniel's prayer was habit and not a reaction to the decree, and what Old Testament prayer does its direction recall?
- What was the 'ninth hour' in , and what did Peter and John meet on the way in?
- Compare how Origen and Augustine understood 'pray without ceasing'. What does Paul's own use of the Greek word in suggest?
- In , what two things does Paul ask the Colossians to pray for, and what does he not ask?
- How did the Moravian intercession plan and the Fulton Street meeting differ in how they organised prayer?
Read further
Letter 130, to Proba · Augustine of Hippo, c. 412 free to read
A pastoral letter on how to pray. Chapter 9 reads 'pray without ceasing' as unbroken desire, with words at set hours to keep that desire warm.
Read it ↗On Prayer · Tertullian, c. 200 free to read
An early commentary on the Lord's Prayer that also discusses practice, including the third, sixth and ninth hours (chapter 25).
Read it ↗On the Lord's Prayer · Cyprian, c. 250 free to read
A treatise on the Lord's Prayer that also names the hours of the day for prayer and speaks of prayer in common.
Read it ↗Didache (chapter 8) · Anonymous, late 1st or early 2nd century free to read
A short early church manual. Chapter 8 gives the Lord's Prayer and tells believers to pray it three times a day.
Read it ↗The Practice of the Presence of God · Brother Lawrence, 1691 and later free to read
Conversations and letters of a Carmelite lay brother. They teach attention to God through ordinary work, with set prayer hours as part of the same practice.
Read it in AideA History of the Moravian Church · J. E. Hutton, 1909 free to read
A Moravian historian's account, including the events of August 1727 and the hourly intercession.
Read it ↗The Power of Prayer · Samuel Irenaeus Prime, 1859 free to read
An eyewitness account of the Fulton Street meeting, with Lanphier's rules and reports of the meetings.
Read it ↗The Korea Pentecost · William N. Blair, 1910 free to read
A missionary's report of the 1907 Pyongyang revival, including the night when the whole audience prayed aloud together.
Read it ↗Tukutendereza Yesu: The Balokole Revival in Uganda · Kevin Ward, n.d. link only
A scholarly history of the East African Revival, covering fellowship life, confession, women's roles and internal disputes. Openly licensed, not public domain.
Find it ↗The Revival of 1857-58: Interpreting an American Religious Awakening · Kathryn Teresa Long, 1998 link only
A critical study of how the Fulton Street revival was remembered and shaped by clergy and the press.
Prepared with AI assistance from public-domain sources and other books' published teaching. A scholar's review is still to come; if you spot anything to correct, please tell us.
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