Eph. 6:18 (KJV) Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints;

In the last segment, I pointed out that the Greek verb carries the idea of continuous action. Therefore, we should render the first part of the phrase, “Keep on continuously praying.” In this segment I want to look at that little word “always.”

Many times when Christians read, “Praying always,” they get overwhelmed in their minds. How can we literally pray all day every day? We have families, jobs and other important things in our lives that must be tended to. And since many believers cannot figure out how they can obey the literal command to “pray always,” they decide that the assignment is impossible and so they give up. Understand that there is indeed a place in God where we can live in constant consciousness of communion with Him. Also understand that it is one mark of maturity in our lives to learn to discern between what is “important” and what is actually “necessary.” Many times, we allow “important” things to distract us from that which is really “necessary,” and in so doing, we settle for “good” which is often the enemy of “best.”

However, I’m convinced that Paul is talking about something in addition to developing our personal communion with God (which is indeed “necessary”) and in addition to learning to prioritize more effectively in the management of our time and energy. The word “always” is a form of the Greek word “kairos.” There are two Greek words generally translated “time.” One is “chronos” which simply refers to “calendar time,” seconds, minutes, hours, days, weeks, months and years. We get our English word “chronological” from this Greek word. The other Greek word translated “time” is the word “kairos.” This word refers to specific strategic seasons in the Purpose of God. Paul is not actually exhorting believers to be in prayer every second, minute and hour of every day. Rather, he is instructing us that we must be faithful and fervent in prayer during every strategic season of God.

Many of us have been in “transition” between one “strategic season” in God’s assignment for us and the next. It is imperative that we “pray through” this time of transition and into the next “kairos” season. It is in prayer and communion with our Father that His Purpose and Direction are conceived, incubated and birthed in our lives. It is as we spend time “binding ourselves” to God in intimate fellowship with Him, that we “exchange” our human inability for His Divine Ability, and our human lack of knowledge and wisdom for His imparted “words” of knowledge and wisdom. As the result of this intimate “exchange,” we can emerge from that place of communion with God enabled to “mount up with wings as eagles,” to “run and not be weary,” and to “walk and not faint” (Isaiah 40:31).

Let us not grow weary and faint in our minds (Heb. 12:3), but rather let us determine by faith to “pray through” this transition time, individually and corporately, as God “positions” us to take the next step in the fulfillment of His Holy Purpose in our next strategic “kairos” season. Be Blessed!