Dr. Jim Van Gelderen: Welcome to the Thee Generation Podcast. This is Jim Van Gelderen. I thank the Lord we’ve been able to have four War of Special Forces in the fall and now eight in the spring as things are getting back going and we’ve certainly been encouraged with each meeting. God is certainly working in hearts, encouraging our hearts.

It’s a great time to be on the advance. A few weeks ago at the Victory Conference at Falls Baptist Church, we had the theme being fearless advance. Really, young people, this is a time to be on the move forward. God is working, there are great opportunities, even in the midst of these unusual circumstances.

Today, I want us to go to 1 Thessalonians chapter number five, and there’s a wonderful little verse tucked in there that I think many of us know. I remember years ago coming across 1 Thessalonians chapter number five and noticed that many verses were pretty short, like “Rejoice evermore.” And of course, the one we’re gonna deal with today, that is “Pray without ceasing.”

Have you ever seen a command of God in the Bible and wondered how in the world can that be true? You’ve got to eat, you’ve got to sleep. I mean, praying without ceasing seems to be impossible and yet we see it as a command of God: “Pray without ceasing.” Well, what does that mean? I’ll be honest with you. If you look at it and figure I can’t do that, you throw your hands up and don’t even try. But what does it mean to pray without ceasing? Perhaps there’s some truth that really is a truth that can help you in your Christian life. I believe it is. So let’s just look at that real quickly. What does it mean to pray without ceasing, and can it even be done?

Well, let me start with this. Several years ago, I was hearing somebody preach, I think it was my older brother, Pastor Wayne Van Gelderen, and he said something like this, “Prayer is the breath of dependence.” I’m sure that’s not original with him. I think many people get that idea. That’s what prayer is, it’s the breath of dependence. And one day I kinda was thinking about it, and it hit me. Well, if prayer is the breath of dependence, then dependence must be wordless prayer. Do you know what I believe “pray without ceasing” means? It means to be in a total attitude of dependence upon God. You can go to sleep at night depending on God. You can wake up in the morning depending upon God. You can sit down for a meal depending upon God.

Now, I’ll be honest with you, in our lives we often get distracted. We get focused on things that aren’t that important. To be honest with you, sometimes we get focused on the future, thinking about “I’d like this to get settled and this to get settled.” You know, with an itinerary. Sometimes it’s easy to be real excited about the fact that every week’s scheduled. But you know, with COVID we have had late cancellations. We’ve had things happen. It’s been so exciting to see God bring in meetings and realize it was a divine appointment. God brought us to the right place at the right time and we had a wonderful meeting. That’s happened multiple times. It’s kind of been fun to live by faith.

Well, last night I was up in the middle of the night, sometimes I get headaches, I think a storm front was coming in, and I don’t know why, it just hit me. I believe it was the Lord to look up “My Utmost for His Highest” by Oswald Chambers and read what that day was, April 27th I believe it was. And right in the middle of that there were a couple of comments that really stirred me about this matter of this constant dependence upon God. And here’s what Chambers wrote, he said, “Gracious uncertainty is the mark of the spiritual life.” And what he means by that is living with an understanding that tomorrow, we don’t know what tomorrow holds, we don’t know exactly what God’s going to call us to do in the next week, months, years. So he calls it, “Gracious uncertainty is the mark of the spiritual life.” To be certain of God means that we are uncertain in all our ways, not knowing what tomorrow may bring. This is generally expressed with a sigh of sadness, but it should be an expression of breathless expectation. I really like those words, “breathless expectation.” Do you live your Christian life in breathless expectation? Kind of like, I wonder what God’s gonna do tomorrow, I wonder what He’s gonna do the next day, because that’s the way God wants us to live. Many times we wanna live with kind of knowing what tomorrow’s gonna be, and the next day, and the next week, and I’m not saying we shouldn’t plan and have some kind of itinerary or schedule, I’m just simply saying we ought to be more certain of God than we are of our plans, and that’s where our certainty ought to be is on God, not in what all our plans are.

Here’s what he continues to write, “As soon as we abandon ourselves to God and do the task He has placed closest to us, He begins to fill our lives with surprises.” Boy, isn’t that the truth? I find the greatest life is when you’re looking to Jesus to do the impossible because you can’t do it. And that’s really praying without ceasing. It’s living in breathless expectation. It’s living for God moments. I’m gonna be honest with a young person, I live for God moments. Just a few minutes ago as I was finishing up War of Special Forces, had a couple of young men come up to me, I could tell. They were deeply moved in their hearts. And these young men told me God worked in their heart this week and they were grateful. And I could tell it was a spiritual work. You know, I live for that. I live to see God touch lives, God change hearts, God come down and help a teenager see he’s got a need but He can meet it. And it’s always a delight when that happens.

Now, I just wanna encourage you, if you’re discouraged right now, you need to recognize, don’t worry about the future, don’t worry about the problems at hand right now in the sense that fretting about them. God says, “Be anxious for nothing.” How in the world can you be anxious for nothing? Well, it’s because you’re certain of God. You may not know how things are going to fall out. You may not know how you’re going to get out of some of the mess you’re in or the problems that are coming your way or the illness or circumstances that are out of your control, but you can be certain about God. The Bible is full of things we can be certain about. God’s merciful. God loves us. God’s mercies are new every morning. He’s plenteous in mercy. God is a God of all power. God is a God who knows everything. He’s infinite in wisdom, knowledge. All these things are amazing things. You can trust God. You can be certain that God knows what His will is for you tomorrow, and you can trust Him to lead you, to guide you, to overcome obstacles, to give you strength when you are tired, and I’m not talking about physically tired. I’m talking spiritually exhausted because you’ve been in the battle. You can trust God, and I want to encourage each one of you to live a life of breathless expectation. Let’s look to God to do that. Let’s be certain of God, even though we cannot always be certain of what tomorrow holds or the next day or the week at hand.

So that’s my encouragement to you, and that’s really what total dependence is. And that’s what Thee Generation is all about. So pray without ceasing. Live a life of that breathless expectation God’s gonna lead me. God’s gonna guide me. God’s gonna strengthen me. When I fail, He’ll cleanse me. He’ll restore me. He’ll give me victory where I’ve been defeated. That’s the life of excitement when you know that you can trust God. So remember gang, total surrender to the will of God and total dependence on the God who we can be certain will meet our need, will lead us, strengthen us, guide us, give us everything we need. “He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him freely give us all things?” You can depend on a God like that.