EPHESIANS 6:18

The church of Jesus Christ begins 2025 as we ended 2024 – On our knees! If ever a time the church needs to pray is now more than ever. In his brilliant letter to the Ephesians, the apostle Paul reminded the saints as he spoke about being fully equipped with the whole armor of God, to Pray Always.

As we prepare to do warfare and as the battle rages, we are cautioned “Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints” (Ephesians 6:18). In the New International Version, it is translated this way “And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the saints” (Ephesians 6:18 NIV). Church we cannot stop! We are hereby encouraged not just to pray during these twenty-one days of prayer and fasting, but to pray always.

May 2025 be just that – a year of prayer and consecrated fasting. The divine word commissions it. We are mandated to seriously pray. As we rise to face each challenging day of these apocalyptic times, there is no better way to do so than by learning to pray in the Spirit on all occasions (6:18). I remain convinced that it is only the Spirit of the Lord who can help us in these absolutely trying times. It calls for a deeper level of understanding of spiritual warfare, a deeper level of praying, a deeper commitment to remain constant and instant in prayer, not just for one’s own self but for all the saints, the entire body of Christ, praying one for another.

As we rapidly approach the end of all things, I cannot help but wonder if we as His people fully comprehend the magnitude of evil that will be unleashed against us, even in 2025. Now is no time for us to relax and put down our guards. To the contrary, we are strongly compelled to be alert, to pray more, not less! The apostle Peter was most careful to point out “But the end of all things is at hand: Be ye therefore sober and watch unto prayer” (1Peter 4:7). The end of all things!

The real objective here is not to scare us but to help us face the reality and seriousness of the times in which we live. May we never stop praying intensely and purposefully for each other and for ourselves. In very poignant terms, Jesus, our Redeemer, forewarned us “Watch ye therefore, and pray always that ye may be accounted worthy to escape all these things that shall come to pass, and to stand before the Son of man” (Luke 21:36). Prayer always helps keep us in a state of readiness for His soon return.

Let us never stop praying for revival! We pray for the forgiveness of all our sins and the healing of our land! We pray for the manifestation of the miraculous daily! We constantly pray for the salvation of our loved ones! We persistently pray against cancer and all our diseases! We pray for boldness to proclaim the truth! We keep on praying all throughout 2025!