Date: 29-06-25
Preacher: Rev Lawrence Seow
Title: Pray without ceasing

Pray without ceasing

There’s something to be said about a Sunday speaker’s desire to connect with the congregation and Rev Lawrence Seow is one such. His humble demeanour despite his experience, casual dress code and preaching style say it all. The PowerPoint was absent but that did not work to his disadvantage. And in the process? Nobody slept but all were engaged.

The main biblical reference was from 1 Tess 5: 16 Rejoice always, 17 pray continually, 18 give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.

As a natural story teller, in his lead-in, he regaled the congregation with many pertinent anecdotes and quotes. I like this one: ‘a sermon is meant to comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortables’. He also told the story of John Stephen Akhwari, who despite suffering a broken knee due to an accident early in the race, went on to complete his race in the 1968 Mexico City Olympics. The Rev’s motive? He was telling the congregation not to quit just as God doesn’t send us here to quit.

Then he asked the congregation 2 questions. The first was whether it would be at all possible to pray without ceasing 24/7. The second was whether God already knew what we wanted to pray for. Since the answer to the first question is ‘no’ and the second is ‘yes’ why then is there still a need to pray?

This is because we don’t know ourselves well and while it is humanly not possible to pray 24/7, we certainly can be in a prayer stance having a ‘posture’ of prayer, an attitude of humility as we always depend on Him. We acknowledge we need Him and He is our true source of everything so we don’t rely on our own strength. Hence according to the good Rev, his first point why we pray without ceasing is we recognise we need God as we don’t know where we are going.

Rev Lawrence’s second point on why we should pray without ceasing is because when we ask God for something right, He will give us everything. Rev Lawrence gave the example of King Solomon who asked for wisdom to rule his kingdom for God. God was so pleased that He gave him everything else.

In his conclusion, Rev Lawrence told the story of a missionary on his return home and he happened to be on the same ship with a celebrity nearing port. He saw thousands waiting to welcome the celebrity home but none came to welcome him. He questioned God how unfair it was as he had been doing His work. God then told the missionary that he was not home yet.

In a sense I think the last anecdote carries a double-edged sword. God might be telling his missionary that his reward awaits him in Heaven but it is also a reminder to us not to be too self-seeking although we may be doing his work.