God’s will for us

“pray continually” (1 Thessalonians 5:17).

The phrase “pray continually” here does not mean to pray over and over again, nor does it mean to pray continuously without breaks, but to pray persistently and regularly (MacArthur).  When we go to God with prayer topics and pray, we must not give up but pray persistently.  However, Satan continues to come to us and deceive us, especially when we think that the difficult situation we are facing continues and the answers to our prayers are slow, Satan continues to deceive us.  Satan comes up to us from time to time and offers us shortcuts and continually deceives us.  The reason why Paul exhorted them to “pray continually” was that they, who had already been taught by God and loved each other, loved them and prayed, always giving thanks to God, I think Paul wanted the Thessalonian church members to always thank God and pray for each other.  The lesson this teaches us is that we should always thank and pray to God for our brothers and sisters in Christ who love one another in the Lord.  The reason why we should always give thanks to God and pray is because we do not cease to always remember before our God and Father the work of faith, labor of love, and patience of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ in each other.  Paul prayed most earnestly that he might see the Thessalonian church members again and supply what was lacking in their faith (3:10).  The reason was so that they would not be unsettled by the many trials (v. 3).  We must constantly pray to God for each other's faith.  In particular, we should be alert, sober and pray to God (5:6).  We should not sleep spiritually, but be awake and pray to God (Park, 1 Pet. 4:7).