The problem of praying in relationship with God rather than just speaking a list of requests in prayer, mentioned in my previous post, always seems to come down to a problem of hearing. That's because we can speak to God, but we often have trouble hearing God, distinguishing God's voice from the voice in our head, or the voices around us. Or perhaps we listen but hear only silence. This is not a new problem. Christians have throughout history--ever since Jesus taught us to pr

Luke 11:1 "Lord, teach us to pray...." Why did the disciples, who grew up in a culture where they'd surely learned about and practiced prayer, ask Jesus to teach them how to pray? Why would we, a group of Christians who have devoted much of our lives to walking with Jesus and have certainly absorbed SOMEthing about prayer, need to learn to pray? A widespread teaching about prayer in evangelical circles is offered in the acronym ACTS (Adoration, Confession, Thanksgiving, Sup

"I should pray more." So many Christians live their lives with the sense that if only they could find time and discipline to pray more, it would solve their problems--with God, with others, with themselves. In their understanding, prayer may be a useful practice that invites God to participate in their activities and pleads with Him to act on behalf of the world, their loved ones, and themselves. Prayer gets things done. Prayer changes the world. Prayer changes God's mind. Bu