Ceased (3973) (pauo) means to cease (middle voice = oneself) from an activity in which one is engaged. Pauo in the active sense means to cause something or someone to cease from some activity or state. To make stop. To stop, restrain, refrain, quit, desist. To come to an end. Pauo is used 15 times in the NAS translated: cease, 4; ceased, 4; finished, 2; incessantly, 1; keep, 1; kept right, 1; stopped, 2. Luke 5:4 When He had finished speaking, He said to Simon, "Put out into the deep water and let down your nets for a catch." Luke 8:24 They came to Jesus and woke Him up, saying, "Master, Master, we are perishing!" And He got up and rebuked the wind and the surging waves, and they stopped, and it became calm. Luke 11:1 It happened that while Jesus was praying in a certain place, after He had finished, one of His disciples said to Him, "Lord, teach us to pray just as John also taught his disciples." Acts 5:42 And every day, in the temple and from house to house, they kept right on teaching and preaching Jesus as the Christ. Acts 6:13 They put forward false witnesses who said, "This man incessantly speaks against this holy place and the Law; Acts 13:10 and said, "You who are full of all deceit and fraud, you son of the devil, you enemy of all righteousness, will you not cease to make crooked the straight ways of the Lord? Acts 20:1 After the uproar had ceased, Paul sent for the disciples, and when he had exhorted them and taken his leave of them, he left to go to Macedonia. Acts 20:31 "Therefore be on the alert, remembering that night and day for a period of three years I did not cease to admonish each one with tears. Acts 21:32 At once he took along some soldiers and centurions and ran down to them; and when they saw the commander and the soldiers, they stopped beating Paul. 1 Corinthians 13:8 Love never fails; but if there are gifts of prophecy, they will be done away; if there are tongues, they will cease; if there is knowledge, it will be done away. Ephesians 1:16 do not cease giving thanks for you, while making mention of you in my prayers; Colossians 1:9 For this reason also, since the day we heard of it, we have not ceased to pray for you and to ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, Hebrews 10:2 Otherwise, would they not have ceased to be offered, because the worshipers, having once been cleansed, would no longer have had consciousness of sins? 1 Peter 3:10 For, "THE ONE WHO DESIRES LIFE, TO LOVE AND SEE GOOD DAYS, MUST KEEP HIS TONGUE FROM EVIL AND HIS LIPS FROM SPEAKING DECEIT. 1 Peter 4:1 Therefore, since Christ has suffered in the flesh, arm yourselves also with the same purpose, because he who has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin, Pauo is found 78 times in the non-apocryphal Septuagint (LXX) (Gen 11:8; 18:33; 24:14, 19, 22; 27:30; Exod 9:28-29, 33-34; 31:17; 32:12; Nu 16:31; 17:10; 25:8; Deut 20:9; 32:26; Josh 7:26; 8:24; Jdg 15:17; 2 Sam 15:24; 1 Chr 21:22; Est 5:1; Job 6:7, 26; 14:13; 18:2; 29:9; 31:40; 37:19; 38:1; Ps 34:13; 37:8; Pr 18:18; 30:1; Isa 1:16, 24; 10:25; 16:10; 24:8, 11, 13; 26:10; 32:10; 33:8; 38:20; 57:10; 58:12; Jer 25:37; 26:3, 8, 13, 19; 31:15, 36; 43:1; 44:10; 48:2; 51:63) The middle voice indicates that Paul and Timothy initiate the action of prayer and participate in the result (praying). Middle voice has a reflexive sense (relating to, or constituting an action -- as in “he perjured himself” -- directed back on the subject) and can be translated "we ourselves have not ceased". Cease is in the present tense indicating that this is a habit of life for Paul and Timothy. Said another way, prayer was their lifestyle. Is prayer your lifestyle? "Not" is the Greek ou which indicates absolute negation. In other words, Paul and Timothy were always in communion with the Lord, "always keeping the receiver off the hook” and thus never in the position of having to say when praying “Lord, we come into Thy presence,” because they never left His presence! They set a worthy goal for all of us to “pray without ceasing” (1Th 5:17) because we are always subject to temptations and attacks from the world, the flesh and the devil. A surprise attack has defeated more than one believer who forgot to “pray without ceasing.” Have you prayed today? Better yet, have you left the receiver off the hook? Praying without ceasing does does not mean we are always saying an audible prayer for Jesus made it clear we are not to think we "will be heard for (our many) words" (Mt 6:7). We are not to be walking around muttering prayers under our breath. Rather, praying without ceasing is when prayer becomes as natural to us as our regular breathing. Unless we are sick or smothering, we rarely think about our breathing; we just do it. Likewise with prayer—it should be the natural habit of our lives, the “atmosphere” in which we constantly live. Prayer without ceasing suggests the attitude and desire of one's heart as well as the words of one's lips. A saint who has his heart fixed on the things above, is ready to pray even when he is not conscious of it, because he is living with an attitude of "God consciousness". When Paul looked around his world, everything he saw prompted him to prayer in some way. When he thought of or heard about one of his beloved churches, it moved him toward communion with God. Nehemiah is an example of a man who continually left the receiver off the hook. After King Artaxerxes demanded the reason for his sadness, Nehemiah told him of the destruction of Jerusalem. Asked by the king for his request, he prayed a quick, brief prayer before replying (Neh 2:4). In the midst of a stressful situation, Nehemiah was conscious of God’s "attentive ear" and faithfulness to hear the cries of His children. AND TO ASK: kai aitoumenoi (PMPMPN): Ask (154) (aiteo) (present tense = we keep on asking - note the verb is plural suggesting Paul has some "prayer partners") is a specific word for prayer which asks for something to be given and gives prominence to the thing asked for rather than the person. Lenski Blass says that this voice is used in business transactions when one asks and gives (B.-D. 316, 2); but the middle voice denotes an asking to which one is entitled. This may occur in a business deal, but it may also take place in far more refined relations when he of whom we ask in some way entitles us to do so. Note, for instance, that Herod had entitled Salome to ask for as much as the half of his kingdom. The reflexive idea “ask for oneself” is only the starting point of this use of the middle: ask as one who is entitled to ask. The entitling referred to here is the fact that God commands us to ask; the middle voice implies that only on this supposition do we ask. (Lenski, R. C. H. (1937). The interpretation of St. Paul's Epistles to the Colossians, to the Thessalonians, to Timothy, to Titus and to Philemon (33). Columbus, O.: Lutheran Book Concern) Aiteo conveys the sense of asking with urgency, even to the point of demanding and refers to the seeking by the inferior from the superior (Acts 12:20), by a beggar from the giver (Acts 3:2), by the child from the parent (Mt 7:9-note) or by a man from God (Mt 7:7-note; cf Jas 1:5-note 1Jn 3:22). THAT YOU MAY BE FILLED (completely filled, totally controlled): hina plerothete (2PAPS): That (hina) which introduces the purpose of their prayer. Whenever you encounter a "that" or "so that" (in context of expression of purpose) always take a moment to pause and ponder, asking simple questions like what is the purpose, what precedes the accomplishment of the purpose, etc. Eadie - The Colossians had gnosis, but the apostle wished them to be filled with additional and supplemental knowledge, not new knowledge, or a different form or section of Christian science, but a fuller development of the partial theological information which they already possessed. Had he gently wished them somewhat more of knowledge, he might have used gnosis, but as he prayed that they might be filled with more of that insight which they already enjoyed, such an accumulation was naturally expressed by epignosis. That augmentation of knowledge had for its theme the Divine will....The prayer was not one for plenary inspiration-nor that God would by some dazzling self-discovery imbue them with a knowledge of His will, but that He would give them this higher spiritual science in the way of giving them all spiritual wisdom and understanding. (Colossians 1)