It takes less than ten minutes to register for a marathon, two days to receive your new running shoes from the online retailer, and an hour to visit the sporting goods store for head-to-toe branded gear. In a matter of days, you can transform yourself into an athlete, or at least the image of one. But none of these external changes will prepare your body to endure 26.2 grueling miles. For that you need three to twelve months of training. Perseverance and endurance cannot be bought or delivered. Neither can a thankful heart and a prayerful spirit.

In America, we set aside one day a year to express thankfulness for God's blessings. But one day is not enough. We also set aside one day a week to pray together as a church body. But once a week is not enough to develop the endurance necessary to persevere in prayer. And if we cannot persevere in thanksgiving and prayer, we cannot persevere through the difficulties of life. For God has given us thankfulness and prayer as weapons of endurance.

Paul makes this same point to the Thessalonians, a young congregation full of new believers. He writes, "Rejoice always, pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus" (1 Thessalonians 5:16-18). God's will for us is a prayerful life of joy and thanksgiving. He calls us to a life of prayer and thanksgiving even when our table is not laden with food, even when following Him means sacrifice, even when circumstances don't go our way.

This is a radically different form of prayer than our common American conception of it. We live in a culture whose motto directly contradicts Paul's charge to the Thessalonians: "Whine always, desire without ceasing, complain in all circumstances . . ." This has influenced our prayer life within the church. We turn prayer into a heavenly complaint desk where we ask to "speak to the manager." We treat prayer like filling out an Amazon wish list or a godly GoFundMe. But this is not Biblical prayer. Prayer is the realignment of our warped passions and priorities so they can reflect God's passions and priorities. Prayer is the process of developing our perseverance and endurance to follow God for a lifetime.

Jesus is the primary example of this prayerful conditioning. What enabled Jesus on the night He was betrayed to pray, ". . . yet not my will, but yours be done" (Luke 22:42)? What empowered Him to ask forgiveness for His executioners from the cross? Jesus prepared for those moments by withdrawing to pray throughout His life and ministry. Luke tells us that Jesus "often withdrew to lonely places and prayed" (Luke 5:16), that He prayed all night before choosing His disciples (see Luke 6:12), that He was praying when Peter confessed Him as Christ (see Luke 9:18), that His praying prompted the disciples to request instruction in prayer (see Luke 11:1). Prayer was the life-breath of Jesus' ministry. Why do we think we can live without it?

What if we would follow Jesus into the school of prayer and thanksgiving? What if we would heed Paul's charge to rejoice always and pray without ceasing? We would treat prayer not as a request hotline but as a relational connection. We would stop asking, "God, when will You answer my prayer?" and start asking, "God, will You help me pray according to Your design?" We would find legalism's grip loosen, and the Gospel's freedom take hold in our hearts.  We would lift our eyes from what we don't have to what we already have in Christ. We would breathe deeply of thankfulness and run boldly into the path God has laid out for us. Let it be so. Amen.