Forever Prayer

By Jimmie L. Hancock

Forever Prayer is the story of one man’s search for understanding the essential nature of prayer. The conclusion is that our thoughts reveal who we really are and what we truly desire--and God is keenly aware all the time of all our thoughts. That makes us forever at prayer because God is always listening in on our thoughts. If we can believe this, and become aware that we are always at prayer, our lives will become more in tune with God’s presence and desires as revealed to us in his Word. Forever Prayer will enlighten and renew your thinking about prayer. Have you ever considered your thoughts being known to God? That would mean you are always at prayer because God would always know your desires at all times. It would also make it very important to maintain good thoughts that please God. Also, good behavior would be expected to follow. Of course, you would have to know what pleases God and that would mean having a knowledge of the Bible which contains God’s desires for your life.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Lulu Publishing Services
• Release date: Nov 19, 2018
• ISBN: 9781483492155

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HANCOCK

Copyright © 2018 Jimmie L. Hancock.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored, or transmitted by any means—whether auditory, graphic, mechanical, or electronic—without written permission of the author, except in the case of brief excerpts used in critical articles and reviews. Unauthorized reproduction of any part of this work is illegal and is punishable by law.

Unless otherwise noted, scripture is taken from The Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

Scripture taken from the King James Version of the Bible.

Scripture taken from the Good News Translation® (Today’s English Version, Second Edition). Copyright © 1992 American Bible Society. All rights reserved.

ISBN: 978-1-4834-9216-2 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4834-9215-5 (e)

Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Getty Images.

Lulu Publishing Services rev. date: 10/29/2018

Dedication

I dedicate this book in memory of

Catherine Annette Brinkley Hancock

(1939-2018)

She was God’s gift to me as my wife for 59 years.

She was my partner in love, happiness, and prayer,

and remains forever on my mind.

Also by Jimmie L. Hancock

All the Questions in the Bible

New Millennium Calendar

(Study the Bible Daily in the Year 2000)

A New View of Proverbs

Revelation, The Fifth Gospel

A Devotional Commentary on

John’s Gospel

Bad News from the Good Book

T he present group of younger persons are accustomed to television and radio going while they are working. They do not live comfortably with the sounds of silence. I certainly am not putting them down for this. They have their own mystique. Possibly the music covers out all other noises and enables them to commune within as the machine noises in the cotton mills did for me when I was young.

Wayne E. Oates, 1979

S ome of us have an absolute aversion to silence. We live in a world of sounds and noises—bleeping sirens, whirring gadgets, pulsating stereos, chattering radios and television sets. If we are left alone for half an hour, we turn on a noise for companionship. We idolize quiet, rustic settings, but when we go there we take our radios and tape players with us.

John Killinger, 1993

A s long as we have our iPhones, we are never alone anymore. The world and everyone we know is with us all the time. What a shame! God is there too, but his number is not in our database.

Jimmie L. Hancock, 2018

Introductory Notes

W hen Scripture is quoted, it will be found in italics without verse numbers. Scripture references are found with the Scriptures or as a footnote.

The word prayer is used in the sense of I said a prayer and not in the sense of pray-er i.e., one who prays.

The quotes by Wayne Oates on previous page are from his book Nurturing Silence in a Noisy Heart (New York: Doubleday & Company, Inc., 1979), pp. 48-49.

The quote by John Killinger on previous page is from his book Beginning Prayer (Nashville: Upper Room Books, 1993), p. 38.

Cover photo of Sunflowers was photographed by the author’s son John Hancock on his Happy Wife Acres farm in Fairborn, Ohio, and used by permission. Most sunflowers actually move during the day, following the sun’s trek across the sky. There is a scientific explanation for this phenomenon and the picture reminds me that when I follow God, I am always at prayer.

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What This Book Is About

T his book is about praying continually. The Bible mentions this topic when it says:

Pray without ceasing.¹

The idea of praying without ceasing means to continue praying without stopping. How can anyone do that? How can anyone be in prayer constantly and accomplish anything else in life? Maybe it’s a translation problem. The English is a translation from Greek. So, let’s look at the Greek from which the English has been rendered. But before doing that, let’s look at some other English translations first. The Precise Parallel New Testament² contains the Greek and the following seven English translations:

1. King James Version: Pray without ceasing.

2. Amplified Bible: Be unceasing in prayer. [praying perseveringly]

3. Rheims New Testament: Pray without ceasing.

4. New American Standard Bible: Pray without ceasing.

5. New International Version: Pray continually.

6. New American Bible: Pray without ceasing.

7. New Revised Standard Version: Pray without ceasing.

All these English translations are rendered from two Greek words which mean literally to pray uninterruptedly or pray without ceasing. So this doesn’t help at all in knowing how to pray all the time and get anything else done. After all, there are other things listed in the same Thessalonian chapter that we are admonished to do along with praying all the time. These include:

1. Encourage one another and build each other up. (Verse 11)

2. Warn those who are idle, encourage the timid, help the weak, be patient with everyone. (Verse 14)

3. Be joyful always. (Verse 16)

Ellingworth and Nida are very helpful in their Translator’s Handbook³ where they quote from Rigaux regarding 1 Thessalonians 5:17, There is an element of rhetorical exaggeration here, as in Romans 12.12 and Colossians 4.2 (cf. Ephesians 6.18). Rigaux comments: ‘(Paul) does not ask them to recite prayers all day long; he asks that they should feel the need of turning to God, not only when important things are happening but at all times.’ Paul means ‘never give up praying’ (cf. GeCL)⁴. Pray is a general term which includes all forms of prayer, not only petition and intercession for oneself and others. In order to avoid the implication that the believer should be constantly in prayer to God, one may say ‘be ready to speak to God at all times,’ or ‘speak to God on any and all occasions.’

I think the whole idea of praying without ceasing goes one step further. My idea is based on