“We cannot pray without ceasing if we do not love without ceasing.”
Thoughts from daily Bible reading for today – November 20, 2025
Epaphras, who is one of you, a servant of Christ Jesus, greets you, always struggling on your behalf in his prayers, that you may stand mature and fully assured in all the will of God. Colossians 4:12, ESV
Over the years, I’ve come to deeply respect and admire the monastic life. This wasn’t always so. In fact, I think there may have been a season in which I was quick to cast judgment upon this way of life. “What about evangelism or loving your neighbor?” I might have said. “All they do is pray!”
Of course, this was ill-informed on multiple levels, yet it also revealed my own impoverished understanding of the importance of prayer. For a monk, their life of prayer is not at odds with their love for neighbor. In fact, it is love for God and neighbor that leads them into such singular devotion, for they have come to believe what I so often have struggled to accept: prayer is powerful!
Monks understand this. Great Christian men and women from every generation have understood this. And we see it clear as day in today’s Scripture reading. How does Epaphras spend his time and live out his identity as “a servant of Christ Jesus?” Filled with love for the Colossian Church, he is “always struggling on (their) behalf in his prayers.”
Let the power of this phrase sink in for a moment.
If I’m honest, I find these words deeply convicting. I realize that I rarely pray with such conviction and fervor. If I believed with all of my heart and soul in the transforming power of prayer, would I pray differently? I believe I would. The prayer life that people like Epaphras modeled so powerfully is born out of an unshakable belief in the truth that God hears and responds to the prayers of his children. It is also an overflow of love for others, carrying their burdens on our own hearts as we would our own. We cannot pray without ceasing if we do not love without ceasing.
And so, let us all look to the wisdom and examples of old, and choose afresh to do the hard work of prayer, believing it to be an essential act of Christian discipleship and a means by which God brings about his plans in the world. This is a struggle that leads to life!
Prayer
Father, fill our hearts with love for you and for others, that we may daily lift up the needs of our world to you in prayer, believing that you hear us and love us with a perfect and unending love, through Christ our Lord. Amen.
Application
Who needs you to “always struggle on their behalf in prayer” in this season of life?
Related Reading
Psalm 5:1–3; Luke 18:1; Ephesians 6:18
Worship Resource
CityAlight: Rise With The Sun
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