This verse reiterates our invitation to engage hope and hardship differently — with patient rejoicing — and adds another difficult element: “be constant in prayer.”  It can be difficult to be constant in anything; how much more so a spiritual act that is often perplexing and at times seems ineffective.

Part of our challenge is in our misunderstanding of what prayer is.  We tend to think of prayer when we need something, and treat it akin to calling God to ask for that thing; if we don’t receive it, we call back.  “Constant” implies you never hang up the phone.  As a teen, a friend and I would call each other not because we needed something, but simply to connect, and would stay on the phone for hours; while we would often talk, we may just as often do other tasks while the friend remained on the line.  In fact, sometimes my friend would fall asleep during the call!  We did not call each other to convey information to each other; we called to be connected to each other.

Could prayer with God be like that?  We dial in, and never hang up, knowing He is present in every moment whether we are talking or not?  Could such an understanding of God’s presence give us more patience in tribulation, and more joy in hope?

If the all-powerful God of the universe is with us in our struggle, that must mean something.