Unconditional love is a life of prayer
Paul gives us an ‘impossible’ command.
“…pray without ceasing…” 1 Thessalonians 5.17
Can you or I pray all the time? Really? However, what if continual prayer is not only about words, but a way of living? The overflow of a life that flows from knowing and loving God.
Jesus said, “This is eternal life: that they know you, the only true God” (John 17:3). To know God, then, is to share in His own life — and God’s life is love itself (1 John 4:7). The more we get to know Him, the more our lives reflect His love. Love is never static; it always gives, always offers itself. That is what God did in Christ: He “gave himself for our sins” (Galatians 1:3‑5), and calls us to do the same — to “walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us” (Ephesians 5:1‑2).
To love, then, is to be a living sacrifice (Romans 12:1). It means freely giving ourselves to others, not out of duty but out of delight — the willing offering of one who knows what it is to be loved first. As Daniels puts it in The Virgin Eye, “In order to be truly free, be a willing captive of love” (p. 399).
Prayer naturally springs from that kind of love. We cannot truly love someone without finding ourselves drawn into prayer for them. Prayer and love are inseparable: Each feeds and completes the other. Daniels writes, “When we are loving, we are at the same time praying,” (p. 398). Genuine love is already turned towards God, even when no formal prayer is spoken.
A mature disciple of Christ learns to live this integrated life, where love and prayer flow together — love becoming prayer, and prayer deepening love. To pray without ceasing, then, is to love without ceasing, for both are expressions of the same divine life within us.
I’d love to know your thoughts.
Your brother, Malcolm
