Hi, I’m Daniel Westfall on the channel “Pray With Me.”

Today is Book Review Day.  The book I’m reviewing today is  the most famous, the most often read, in fact the very best book on prayer that is available.  If you’re a Christian you probably own this book already. It’s not often published by itself — it usually comes as one book in middle of another book.  Today’s book is the Psalms, a collection of 150 prayers in the middle of the Bible.

The Psalms are not meant to be read straight through the way you read a modern novel.  They are meant to be prayed. When our daughter was 10 or 12, she asked what I was reading.  “The Psalms,” I said. “Oh, the Psalms,” she replied. “They’re all the same: ‘Help me Lord, my life is falling apart, I’m depressed, come rescue me.’ and then, ‘Oh, thank you Lord, you saved me.’” I said, “What a wonderful summary of the Psalms.  That’s why I love them. I think you’re just too young to appreciate them.”

The most amazing thing about the Psalms? If you’re not very good at praying, they give you words to pray with. They’re a gift for people who try to pray.  

Another amazing thing about the Psalms is the stuff people bring to God when they pray.  Here are some examples:

Emotions are big in the Psalms.  People speak to God
– about great joy and deep sorrow,
– about large hopes and crushing disappointments,
– about desperate loneliness and exuberant friendships,
– about debilitating depression and unrestrained happiness,
– about vicious hatred and deep deep love.

Relationships are big in the Psalms.  The pray-ers have friends who love and support them, enemies who hate and attack.  Sometimes friends become enemies. The only constant friend is God, but often the one praying is not sure if God is friend or enemy today.

Good and evil are big in the the Psalms.  The pray-ers often complain about the violence and injustice in the world. But they also confront the evil that lives in the human heart — in our own hearts — and they bring the evil to God.

One of the most important things the Psalms teach: We don’t have to get better to come to God.  We don’t have to dress up or pretend our lives are together. We can come to God and say our prayers just as we are, in any state of anger or depression or joy.

In the Psalms, God presents himself in many different ways.
– he is king and ruler and judge of the world in Psalm 2
– he is our rock and fortress and saviour in Psalm 18
– he is the creator of a beautiful universe in Psalm 19
– he is the gentle shepherd in Psalm 23
– he is the one who hears our cries of pain and distress in Psalm 42
– he is  the gardener tending a vine in Psalm 80
– he is the mother bird sheltering us under her wings in Psalm 91

In all of our need, all of our pain, all of our joy, God is there for us in the Psalms.

Author Eugene Peterson describes the Psalms in this way:
“Prayers are tools,
not for doing or getting,
but for being
and becoming….
[Prayers] are the tools…God uses to work his will in our bodies and souls.
Prayers are [the] tools…we use to collaborate with his work in us. . . .
The Psalms are the best tools….” (Eugene Peterson, “Answering God”, pp. 2-3) 

Dear God, today we need a teacher in the way of prayer.  So we pray to you with the Psalmist, “Show us your ways, Oh Lord, teach us your paths” (Ps 25). “Teach us to number our days that we may gain a heart of wisdom” (Ps 90).   

I’m Daniel on the channel “Pray with Me.”

Hi, I’m Daniel Westfall on the channel “Pray with Me”.

Today we continue praying the Lord’s Prayer. Let’s focus on the phrase, “Your kingdom come.” First, the whole prayer:

Our Father in Heaven,
Hallowed be your name.
Your kingdom come.
Your will be done on earth as in heaven.
Give us today our daily bread.
And forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us.
Save us from the time of trial,
And deliver us from evil.
For yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory, now and forever,
Amen.

Our Father in Heaven,
“Your kingdom come.”

We pray to you as king, which seems rather odd in our modern world
where democracies elect presidents,
where dictators appoint themselves to rule,
where Big Brother watches us on security cameras and cell phones,
and where Kings and Queens are invested with great pomp and little power.
But you don’t call yourself dictator or president or Big Brother. You call yourself King — undisputed ruler over all that exists, because you created everything and you sustain it all.

If you are king, then why must we pray for your kingdom to come? Is it not already here? Where are you not already king?

We confess that you are not king in our lives, because we reserve control for ourselves. We cling to that bit of money, that bit of power, that bit of self-expression that is so important to us. Beside your big kingdom, we build little kingdoms of our own design. We pray your kingdom come, oh God, overruling our self-styled kingdoms and plans.

We confess that you are not king in our choice of entertainment. We amuse ourselves with relationship-destroying behaviour in movies, TV programs, video games and music. Your kingdom come, O God, that we may build and honor the life you give.

We confess that you are not king in our homes. Free us from being petty tyrants who rule by fear and manipulation. Free us from eating too much and exercising too little. May your kingdom come to our homes, that they may be places of health and relationship and life.

We confess that you are not king in our churches. These are human institutions
where we argue about styles of music and length of sermons;
where we want others to honour us;
where the church leaders vie for power and influence;
where we gossip and criticize and say all manner of evil against each other.
May your kingdom come to our churches, that our service will be done in love for you and others.

We confess that you are not king in our nation and in our world of nations. Our world is full of racial injustice, economic injustice, political corruption, and moral bankruptcy. Our greed causes devastating climate change. Bring your kingdom, O God, to our world, to politics and economics, to education and law-courts, to business and employment and morality and climate.

We remember Paul’s words, “The kingdom of God is not food and drink, but righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit” (Romans 14:17). Be in us that righteousness, peace, and joy, making our lives part of your kingdom, making them springs of water welling up to eternal life (John 4:14).

Amen.

I’m Daniel on the channel “Pray with Me”.

Hi, I’m Daniel Westfall on the channel “Pray with Me”.  

Today, we continue praying the Lord’s Prayer. Let’s focus on the phrase “Hallowed be your name.”   First, here’s the whole prayer:

Our Father in Heaven,
    Hallowed be your name.
    Your kingdom come.
    Your will be done on earth as in heaven.
      Give us today our daily bread.
    And forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us.
    Save us from the time of trial,
    And deliver us from evil.
For yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory, now and forever,
Amen.

Our Father in Heaven,

“Hallowed be your name.” Hallowed comes from the word holy, which means “set apart,” or “special.” So we set your name apart from the common things of daily life, and we treat your name as something special.

We set your name apart from our tools: the lawn mower, the snow shovel, the pickup truck, the computer. You are more than all of these. You are not an appliance we use to fix our broken lives. You are not a cleaning service we call on when we have sinned. You are not a gun to point at our enemies. You are God over all. You have your plans. You have your way of making things happen. This is why we set you apart, and we pray that as you  carry out your plans, you will hear us call on you, and will invite us to participate in your activites.

We set your name apart in the words we use. Often we hear your name as a swear word or an exclamation mark, like “oh my God,” or “Jesus Christ.”  Help us to separate your name from the dirt of our lives, to give your name a place of honor. Help us quiet our confusions, our mixed emotions, and the angers that control us. Help us to hold to your name in the quiet centre of our hearts, away from the turmoil that swirls around and within us.

We set your name apart in our relationships. You have put your image in each of us. You know the damage we do by ignoring your image in others and treating them as objects. Hallowed be your name in our relationships.

Forgive us for dumping on our children instead of correcting them quietly and peaceably. Hallowed be your name in our children.  

Forgive us for treating our partners unkindly, instead of treating them as holy people, fellow travellers on our journey through life.  Hallowed be your name in our partners.

Forgive us for speaking ill of parents and bosses and politicians. They too are made in your image. Despite what evil they have done, the light of your image shines in their life and activity. Hallowed be your name in all earthly authority and life.

Help us, we pray, to set your name apart in the books we read, the movies we watch, and the computer games we play. How often our entertainments are filled with violence and sex and crime and injustice. We set your name apart from these because you value peace and purity and justice.

Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. Make your name special in our lives, so we can make it special in our world.

Amen.

I’m Daniel on the channel “Pray with Me”.

Hi, I’m Daniel Westfall on the channel “Pray With Me”.

Today, in the book of Genesis in the Bible, we come to the second time the word “Pray” is used. It’s in another story — this time, a romance.  

Here’s the story. Early in his life, Abraham responded to God’s call and moved from his home in Mesopotamia to present-day Israel and Palestine. Abraham decided his son Isaac needed a wife, but the local women in Canaan didn’t meet his approval. His solution? Send a servant back to Mesopotamia. “Find my son a wife,” said Abraham. The servant loaded 10 camels with stuff for the journey and gifts for the relatives, and set out to find a bride.  

When the servant arrived, he parked his 10 camels beside the local watering hole. “What now,” he wondered

So he prayed and made a suggestion to God. He said, “When a lady comes to the spring for water, I’ll ask for a drink. If she gives me a drink and offers to water the camels too, I’ll take that as a sign she’s the right one for Isaac.”

As the servant waited at the spring with his camels, along came Rebekah. And she had all the right qualifications: a relative of Abraham, beautiful, and single. The servant watched her fill her water jar, and asked for a drink. ”Sure,” she said, “Have a drink. And I’ll  water your camels too.”

Wow. Mission accomplished. Prayer answered. The servant knew he’d found the bride, so he pulled out a gold nose ring and gold bracelets, put them on Rebekah and sent her home.  When her brother Laban saw her decked out in all that gold, he got excited and hurried to the spring to invite the servant and his camels home. The servant told his story, gave his gifts, and took Rebekah home, where she married Isaac.  

So . . . What’s to be learned from the servant’s prayer?

1. A question. Is this a good way to pray? To tell God we need a sign to help us make a decision? Maybe yes, maybe no. Sometimes God gives people a sign when they ask, but often he doesn’t. Have you ever prayed for sign, but all you got was silence? Did you ever get something that was kind of close to the sign you wanted, but not spot on? And it left you confused and indecisive? Often the best sign is to talk to someone wise and compassionate, who will hear our troubled story and help us understand our choices. You don’t want someone like Rebekah’s brother Laban, whose main opinion seems to be, “Gold nose ring and gold bracelets? Go with the gold, girl!”
2. And finally, we see that once again God shows up in the complexities of human experience to help His people.  

Pray with me: “Dear God, I need a sign but I am so confused. I’m not sure I would understand a sign if You gave it to me. Change my heart and walk with me on my journey, that I may find my way to You.”

Until next time, I’m Daniel on the channel “Pray with me”.

Hi, I’m Daniel Westfall on the channel “Pray with Me”.  

Today, we continue praying the Lord’s Prayer.  We will focus on the word “heaven” from the phrase, “Our father in heaven.”   First, the whole prayer:

Our Father in Heaven,
    Hallowed be your name.
    Your kingdom come.
    Your will be done on earth as in heaven.
      Give us today our daily bread.
    And forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us.
    Save us from the time of trial,
    And deliver us from evil.
For yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory, now and forever,
Amen.

Our Father in Heaven,

Today we address you as our Father who lives in heaven.  But as Solomon prayed at the dedication of the temple, “Will God indeed dwell with man on the earth? Behold, heaven and the highest heaven cannot contain you…” (1 Kings 8:27, ESV)

When we pray to you in heaven, we remember that “In the beginning, you created the heavens and the earth.” Your scope of activity is not limited like ours, to a short time on a small planet in a big universe. You made time and space, and you sustain it all. We are less than a heartbeat in the ages of time, less than a grain of sand on the shore of the oceans.

We take our place under the heavens, under the heaven in which you dwell.  Here we are servants of time, as it marches us onward to death. But we feel that you have put eternity in our hearts.

We are servants of place, which limits where we go and how we get there. But we feel you have called us out of this place into the Kingdom of Heaven, where you are the ruler and where you are not ruled by place.

We are servants of the world, for here we labor and eat and sleep and sorrow. But we hear you call us to heaven where you will wipe away every tear, where death is no more, where the Lamb in the midst of the throne will be our shepherd, where he will guide us to springs of living water.

Oh Lord, we hear your call from afar. We look beyond our meagre, scrabbling lives to the heaven where you dwell, to the wider life to which you have invited us. A life where righteousness trumps politics, where love is more important than money, where being is valued above image, where truth is honored above lies.  

Our Father in heaven, we ask you make us good citizens here on earth for the few years we spend here, and we ask you to prepare us to be good citizens of your eternal country.

Amen.

I’m Daniel on the channel “Pray with Me.”

Hi, I’m Daniel Westfall on the channel “Pray With Me.”

Occasionally on this channel, I will review books about prayer. I want to tell you about some of the books that have been the most help to me on my journey into prayer.  But today, instead of reviewing a book about prayer, I want to WARN you about the danger of trying to develop your prayer life by reading lots of good books. What’s the danger? If you read each of the books I review in the next few months, your head will be packed with information about prayer.  But where will your prayer life be?

Here’s how Ian Rankin, a Scottish author of mystery novels, describes the reading habits of his detective John Rebus: “Rebus collected unread books. Once upon a time, he had actually read the books that he bought, but these days he seemed to have so little time. Also, he was more discriminating than he had been then…  These days, a book he disliked was unlikely to last 10 pages of his concentration. His books for reading tended to congregate in the bedroom, lying in coordinated rows on the floor like patients in a doctor’s waiting-room. One of these days he would take a holiday. . . and would take with him all of these waiting-to-be-read-or-reread books, all of that knowledge that could be his for the breaking open of a cover.” (“Naughts and Crosses”, pp. 38-39).

Maybe you too have lots of good books around your house — dusty and unread. And maybe that’s a sign you don’t need more books — you could spend some time praying instead.

If you want to try some of the books I review, but don’t want to buy them, here’s how to keep costs down. Borrow from the library.  The Edmonton library where I live has lots and lots of books on prayer. If they don’t have the book I want, they can usually get it with an interlibrary loan. Many churches have libraries. Can’t find any other source? Talk to friends. They probably have books they’ve borrowed and haven’t returned!

Another option: check Amazon.com or Indigo.com.  They have a feature where you can look inside a book. Usually, you can read the first 10 pages.  Inspector Rebus would approve.

Finally, after my stern warnings about not building a library you don’t use, here are some comforting words from author Lauren Winner: (“Still: Notes on a Mid-Faith Crisis,”  p. 75)

“Because it is easier to read about prayer than to pray, I have shelves full of books: meditations on the Lord’s Prayer by a dozen authors; scholarly accounts of prayer in the twelfth century, the eighteenth century; Hasidic wisdom on prayer; manuals for knitting a prayer rug, a prayer shawl, a prayer blanket, a prayer tree. (I don’t, alas, know how to knit.) Sometimes I think all this reading gets in the way, that the books become excuses, something to do in lieu of praying.  Other days, I know that to read about prayer is at least to indulge my desire, to acknowledge that I want this thing, that I long for it, even if this afternoon the closest I can get is reading voyeurism, greedy spying on other people at prayer.”

I’m Daniel on the channel Pray with Me, encouraging you keep alive that desire for prayer, even if the best you can do right now is to listen to other people talk about praying.

Hi, I’m Daniel Westfall on the channel “Pray with Me”.  

Today we start praying through the Lord’s Prayer, in the manner suggested by Martin Luther, where we pray one phrase at a time.  I’ll start by saying the whole prayer, then today I will pray around the first two words from the prayer, “Our Father.”

Our Father in Heaven,
    Hallowed be your name.
    Your kingdom come.
    Your will be done on earth as in heaven.
      Give us today our daily bread.
    And forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us.
    Save us from the time of trial,
    And deliver us from evil.
For yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory, now and forever,
Amen.

Our Father,

We have not seen you. We feel we hardly know you, but we call you by the name Father.  You are our Father because you made us, and we have inherited some of your genes, for we are made in the image of God.

We call you Father because you have cared for us.  You made us from the dust of the earth, and breathed into us the breath of life, and we became living beings.  Our every breath reminds us that you still breathe into us. Each time we wash dirt from our hands, we remember it is your grace that keeps us from turning back to dust.

When we call you Father, it reminds us of our earthly fathers.  For many of us, this triggers the fear and rejection and family dysfunction we grew up in.  
Some of us have never known our fathers, for they abandoned us before we were born.  
Some of us had fathers addicted to alcohol or drugs or violence or sex. They abused and mistreated us.  
Some of us had fathers who had post traumatic stress syndrome. They left us a legacy of fear and depression and mistrust and instability.  
Some of us had fathers who provided clothes and food and schooling, but never gave affection or a sense of belonging or love.

So when we call you Father, which of these Father-names belongs to You?

We come to you in Jesus’ name, because he taught us that you are not like the fathers we have known.  As a father has compassion on his children, so you have compassion on those who know you. Moses said, “In the wilderness, you saw how the Lord your God carried you, as a father carries his child.”  Jesus said, “How much more will your father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him?” Jesus also said that not even one sparrow will fall to the ground outside the Father’s care.

When we pray, “Our Father”, we set aside the dysfunction and fear we learned in our birth family, and we present to you our deep longing for a father who will
know us
and love us
and teach us to grow up and make us wise.  

Our Father,
take our broken lives,
take these wandering paths,
take these lost minds and mixed up emotions.
Carry us through this wilderness of life, as a true father carries his children.

Oh you who were Father to Jesus in the days of his life on earth, we hear his invitation for us to call you Father as he did.  And we share his confidence that you will do us good and not harm, that you will lead us safely through our joys and trials on earth until at last we join your one glad family in the city of God.

Amen

I’m Daniel on the channel Pray with Me.

Hi, I’m Daniel Westfall on the channel “Pray With Me.”

You may have guessed from the channel name, “Pray with Me,” that we are actually going to pray.

So … let’s find a starting point for praying together. I suggest we consider an exchange between Martin Luther and his barber, Peter Beskendorf.  Peter asked Luther to teach him something about prayer, so Luther wrote him a short letter that said “I will tell you as best I can what I do when I pray. May our Lord grant that you do it better than I!”

Here’s the simple method Luther gave Peter for praying the Lord’s Prayer. Expand and personalize each phrase of the prayer and make it your prayer. For example, Luther started with “Hallowed be your name,”  and used it as his jumping off point to ask God to destroy and root out all sorts of abominations perpetrated by people who misuse his name, and to pray that God will help his people praise him by believing the truth and living holy lives.

Now that sounds like a Martin Luther prayer, definitely not mine. But I like his basic method. Take a small section of the Bible, think on it, and chat with God about it in your own words. Not difficult.

And what will the outcome be? Do you imagine that Luther’s barber used Luther’s good advice to become a mighty man of prayer? What actually happened was not long after Luther wrote him about prayer, Peter the barber got drunk and stabbed his son-in-law. Luther intervened on his behalf to get his death penalty commuted into a life-long banishment.  

Wow. I don’t know what it is about barbers. At the end of one haircut, my barber said to me, “Did you know that barber and surgeon used to be one combined trade?  I’m thinking of claiming back some of the old territory.” And he took out a large pair of scissors, held them in front of my face and said, “How are your tonsils today?”  

I said, “My tonsils are feeling really, really good today, thank you.”  

Anyway, back to Luther’s method for prayer. That is exactly what we will do when we pray. Take a little Bible section and pray it back to God. In the next episode we start by using the method Luther suggested to pray the Lord’s prayer phrase by phrase. I hope you’ll tune in and pray the Lord’s prayer with me.

Let us pray. Jesus, your disciples said to you, “Teach us to pray.”  We invite you to do the same for us. Teach us to pray.

I’m Daniel, thanking you for joining me on the channel “Pray with Me.”

Resources

Printable PDF of Luther’s suggestions for his barber, organized in booklet form: https://wmpl.org/filed/resources/public/Literature/ASimpleWaytoPray.pdfPrintable PDF of Luther, with pages in order:  http://online.nph.net/media/SampleFiles/PDF/0600751.pdf

Best article, which includes the sad ending: http://themelios.thegospelcoalition.org/article/a-lesson-from-peter-the-barber

Hi, I’m Daniel Westfall on the channel “Pray With Me”.

Today, a simple question: “What is prayer?”

I start with the Bible, a holy book, shared in part by Jews, Protestants, and Catholics.  The Protestant Bible I use is made up of 66 shorter books. The first book is “Genesis”, which means “Beginnings”, and has the famous stories about creation, Adam and Eve, and Noah and the flood.

Genesis first uses the word “pray” in the story of a man called Abraham.  The story goes like this: God called Abraham to go to the Promised Land and God made a bunch of big promises to Abraham.  But as Abraham wandered around the new land and got rich herding sheep and goats and camels, it didn’t look like God was going to deliver on the big promises any time soon.

A king saw Abraham’s wife, Sarah, and Abraham could see that the king found his wife attractive. Abraham introduced her as his sister, not as his wife, and the king conscripted her into his harem. A messy and inconvenient situation!   But Abraham didn’t have to sort out the mess, because God stepped in. God appeared to Abimilech, the king, in a dream and said,, “You’re like dead meat, man, because that woman you took? She’s married to one of my favorite people.”

Abimilech says, “Whoa, I didn’t mean it! He told me they were brother and sister, not husband and wife.”  “I know,” says God, “that’s why I kept you from touching her. But now, return this man’s wife for he is a prophet. He will pray for you and you will live.”

Did you hear the word “pray” in there?  It’s God telling Abimilech in a dream: “Return this guy’s wife, and get him to pray for you.”

A summary:  Abraham creates a problem for himself, for his wife, and for Abimelech. God sorts things out, and Abraham gets to pray for the person he caused trouble for.  

There are some helpful lessons in this story, not all of them about prayer.

1. The first lesson is, Hey! If you’re in a relationship, don’t pretend your partner is your sister.
2. The second lesson is, Even if you do something stupid like that, God might choose to protect you and her anyway, like he protected Abraham and Sarah.
3. The next lesson is one of the most important lessons in the Bible about how God works and how to understand the Bible.  The Bible is not all do’s and don’ts. It’s not just a bunch of instructions on how to live the right life. Lots of the Bible is stories–complicated stories–about complex characters who did good and bad, and about people who told the truth, half-truths, and sometimes outright lies that got them into trouble. The Bible doesn’t explain what all the stories mean. Sometimes it just tells the story.  The amazing and encouraging thing is that sooner or later God shows up in most of the stories.
4. And finally, remember this about prayer:  When you get yourself or someone else into deep trouble, and are clueless about how fix the mess you’ve made, guess what?  God is prepared to show up in the middle of the mess and help.

That’s it for today’s topic, “What is prayer?”  If you’re strong on logic, you are probably thinking, “But he didn’t  answer the question. He didn’t tell us what prayer is. He just told us a weird Bible story that has the word “prayer” in it.

Instead of trying to figure it out, why don’t you pray with me my prayer that comes from the story: “Dear God, I’ve made a mess of my life and I know it’s my fault and I don’t know what to do.  Can you please show up in the middle of my story, like you did in the middle of Abraham’s, and start to set things right?”

I’m Daniel, signing off this episode of the  channel “Pray with Me”.

Hi.  I’m Daniel Westfall, on the Channel “Pray with Me”.  

If you are  like me and have an ongoing problem trying to pray, perhaps you are  also like me in thinking, “It would be helpful to have someone to blame.” And I want to suggest that we blame Jesus, because something he said creates a huge problem for people who try to pray.  

So what problem did Jesus create? I think it’s that promise he made, “If you believe, you will receive whatever you ask for in prayer.”  Six times in the gospels he said, “Whatever you ask.”  Wow.  Feels like winning a lottery.  I can ask for beachfront property in southern California. I can ask for health and happiness. I can pray that God will destroy all my enemies. Why not? Didn’t Jesus say, “Whatever you ask”?  

But of course, when we start praying, we discover quickly we don’t get whatever we ask. Doesn’t work. Not even when we request things we know the world needs, like when I pray that I will become patient and not so cynical.

So . . . are you interested in helping me solve the problem of prayer that Jesus created? Here are three suggestions.  

The first solution, offered by many teachers, is a series of lectures on “How to pray the right way so God will give you what you really want.”  These teachers suggest you need to pray more intensely. Pump up your faith with spiritual exercises because when you pray with enough muscle in your mindset, God is more likely to notice and respond.

If you feel this is what your prayer life needs, I suggest you Google the word “Pray” to find that kind of teaching.  It’s widely available.

A second way to deal with the “Whatever you ask” problem is to focus on the conditions.  Jesus said, “If you BELIEVE, you will receive whatever you ask,” and “Whatever you ask IN MY NAME.” Looks like it’s not Jesus who’s the problem, it’s YOU.  If you’re not getting whatever you ask, it must be that you are not believing correctly, or that you are not asking properly IN HIS NAME.

If you feel this is what your prayer life needs, I suggest you Google ”How to pray with faith” or “How to pray in Jesus’ name” to find that kind of teaching.  It too is widely available.

But if you’ve tried both those suggestions, and you are still stalled out and unmotivated in your prayer life — well, that leaves you with me still wondering how to solve the problem of prayer. In that case, here’s my most important prayer secret: It’s simple: I don’t have a solution to the problem of prayer.  All I have is some hope that when Jesus said, “Whatever you ask”, he didn’t say it to mock me, but to share with me his kind and generous heart.  “Whatever you ask” is an invitation that comes to us from the heart of God. And it is an invitation for us to begin a journey into the heart of God.  The beginning point and the ending point for this journey truly is “Whatever you ask”. I’d like you to join me here Monday to Friday starting October 1 for some short talks, short prayers, and short book reviews.   These talks, prayers and reviews will share my journey into the heart of God, and will invite you to come with me to that place. I call it the place of prayer.

I’m Daniel on the channel “Pray with me”.