Praying Like Monks, Living Like Fools Podcast

The ultimate discovery of prayer is intimacy.  Requests first bring us to our knees, but it’s relationship that keeps us praying.  In this extended finale, our guests throughout the season join us in a roundtable format to share the secrets of their own prayer lives.

Everyone who’s ever taken prayer seriously has been gut-punched by the agonizing silence of unanswered prayer.  So how do we make sense of the apparent silence of God in response to our cries?  How might silence deepen prayer’s intimacy and power rather than draining it?  And what keeps me praying in the face of pain and disappointment?

Why do prayers for unbelieving friends and family members seem so ineffective, and where do I find the hope and stamina to keep on praying for someone else when nothing seems to be happening?  The understanding and practice of contending and travail, pictured in the life of the prophet Elijah, gives us both the inspiration and method for praying for the lost.

When Jesus taught his disciples to pray, he began with adoration—hallowing the name of the Father.  So why must our prayers begin with praise?  What did Jesus mean in the opening line of the Lord’s Prayer that might be lost in translation through the centuries?  In the end, might adoration be more for my benefit than God’s?

Prayer is the most powerful force in the world, but our experience in this world tends to make that difficult to believe.  Even those of us who profess belief in prayer’s power typically live as if productivity and action are far more powerful than prayer.  So how does God answer prayer, how do I pray for His Kingdom to come, and where do my prayers and God’s action meet?