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Verse 17, pray without ceasing. Pray without ceasing. Understand something, a joyful person is a praying person. A joyful person is a praying person. And that term without ceasing literally just means consistently. That you are consistently praying. Not necessarily an action, but a lifestyle. We have to shift our thinking in Christianity from this idea that prayer is a certain action that I take at a certain time. That is not what without ceasing means. It means that we are to be people of prayer consistently throughout our day as a lifestyle. Not a religious activity, but an intimate relationship. Please don't see prayer as a religious activity because that's never what it was meant to be. It was never meant to be just something that you do at a certain time. That you use specific words in a specific time, in a specific way, at a specific place. And then once you've done that, you're done. You pray for the day. That's not praying without ceasing. That's checking off something on your religious list. That's what that is. I remember growing up in, if you grew up in church in the 80s and 90s, one of the big movements, and the purpose was meaningful. I'm not trying to denigrate the purpose of it. I'm just telling you what happens when we do these things sometime in churches. There was this push, the teenagers in the 80s and 90s, to you have to have your quiet time. You've got to have your quiet time. You've got to have your quiet time. You'd pastor always say, when's your quiet time? Preachers say, when's your quiet time? You go to camp. Here's your quiet time. You've got to have your quiet time. You've got to have your quiet time. They would always tell us to have our quiet time, but they would never tell us why to have the quiet time. You see, it's not about the doing as much as it is the why. So I can tell you, somebody who grew up in that, it was like, okay, I have to do it this way. I have to do it just like this. I have to say these words. I have to read this amount of Scripture. I've got to do this, or I'm going to disappoint God, and I don't want to disappoint God. Instead of saying, here's what I want you to hear me say. It's not prayer. It's not a have-to. It's a get-to. Do you understand the difference? Prayer is not a have-to. It is a get-to. You get to talk to the sovereign Creator of the universe. The one that spoke everything that is in existence into existence with the literal breath of His mouth, as Colossians says, wants to talk to you today. He wants you to talk to Him about your feelings, your emotions, your hurts, your pains, what you want for Christmas. There's no little detail too small for your conversation with the Lord. It wasn't until I got older that it clicked in my brain that, man, prayer is not a have-to. It is a get-to. Instead of being a religious thing that you must do, we must understand that prayer is a privilege that we are allowed to do. It is a privilege and an honor that the sovereign Creator of the universe would listen to us, cares about us. He cares about what's going on in your life, that it is a connection. It's a connection between you and here's where the personalness comes into it. Your Heavenly Father. Your Heavenly Father wants to talk to you. He wants to communicate with you. In my 20 years of ministry, I can tell you some of this. The hardest I've seen grown men cry, and we served up in North Alabama for a little while, where they make sheetrock and they farm. They do hard work. Big, burly guys, beards, calluses all over their hands, overalls and dirt. Kind of guy that, you know, difference between weight room strong and old man strong. Old man, like if one of these guys get their hands on you, they got you, buddy. Like old man working hard strong, bawling in my office because his child won't talk to him. Bawling in his office because he hasn't spoken to his son in years. How it broke his heart that his own child wouldn't speak to him. And listen, he was at fault as much as the child was. How much do you think our Heavenly Father longs to talk to us? How much do you think our Heavenly Father desires, that's what that word will means, desires to talk to you? Now, I hope you have a consistent prayer in Bible study time. I do, every morning. I read one chapter a week. I study that chapter a week. I'm in Psalms chapter 2 right now. It's going to take me a long time to get through the book of Psalms. Because I read one chapter a week and I spend time in prayer. You know when else I spend time in prayer? When I'm driving my truck going places. Now, I don't bow my head and close my eyes when I'm doing that one. You see a need, you see a hurt, one, try to help, but two, pray. When somebody says, hey, can you pray for me? Can you pray for so-and-so? Stop and pray. Even if it's in the moment, it's not really appropriate to pray out loud. Pray internally. That's what this word means. That you are in a consistent, talking, intimate conversation with the God that created you. So your Father just longs to hear from you. He longs to talk to you. And yes, it's a two-way conversation. Through circumstances, through His words, through other people around you. There's all kind of ways that God talks to us. And I'm going to give you five things real quickly that your life will get better if you are consistently praying. Number one, you will grow in your intimacy with God. You will. You will grow in your intimacy with God. Number two, you will find peace in hard times. When you are constantly connected to your Heavenly Father, that's your source to have peace in the hard times. Number three, prayer helps you focus on what's important. We are surrounded by things that distract us. Look over here. That's one of Satan's greatest tools for us is distraction. Remember, he doesn't care if you come to church. He doesn't care if you sing the songs. He doesn't care if you raise your hands or don't raise your hands. He doesn't care about any of that stuff. He just doesn't want you paying attention and loving Jesus. He just doesn't want you growing in your intimacy with Jesus. So he'll distract you with all kind of things. See, prayer helps us focus on what's important. Number four, it's in prayer that we find freedom from guilt. It's in prayer that we find the freedom from sin. It's in prayer when we are connected with our Heavenly Father that Satan can't attack us and remind us of our past and things that we've done. There's an old Baptist saying, when Satan reminds you of your past, you just remind him of his future because of what Jesus did for you on the cross. You are free. Romans chapter 8 is all about your freedom. Prayer helps free you from the guilt of sin. The last thing, it helps you grow. It helps you grow spiritually, mentally, and emotionally. Always pray. For more information visit www.FEMA.gov