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God’s heartbeat for humanity has always been relationship. As such, prayer is the pathway for proximity to God, the communication conduit that transforms distant, conceptual faith into personal, relational friendship.
In Richard Foster’s book Celebration of Discipline: The Path to Spiritual Growth, he speaks to the importance of prayer and the tension some feel around this practice: “Human beings seem to have a perpetual tendency to have somebody else talk to God for them. . . . The history of religion is the story of an almost desperate scramble to have a king, a mediator, a priest, a pastor, a go-between. In this way we do not need to go to God ourselves. Such an approach saves us from the need to change, for to be in the presence of God is to change.”
"To be in the presence of God is to change."
Let that sink in. The gift of prayer is immersion in the Presence of God, the place where we position ourselves for conversations that transform us from the inside out. In prayer, we cultivate a level of friendship with God that ushers in His kingdom come on earth as it is in Heaven within us first and then through us. The biblical narrative gives us a clear picture of this reality.
Hebrews 11:8 tells us Abraham did not know where he was going. His faith and destiny were not rooted in human certainty but in the messages he positioned himself to receive through God’s voice of instruction. Paul’s divine encounter on the road to Damascus propelled him to surrender to the wild winds of the Holy Spirit’s leading. But it was his friendship with God, not supernatural signs and wonders, that served as the animating center of his life. These stories reveal to us that lives of prayer, presence and encounter help us prioritize a posture of personal communion necessary for our intimacy WITH God to be greater than our influence FOR Him.
In a “do more, try harder” world we must remember...
God is not transactional. He is relational.
He is not a formula to master nor is He a means to an end. He is a relationship-first person whose love and sovereign line of sight is our only certainty and our only true home in a homesick world.
Matthew 7:4 reminds us “But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.”
Prayer is the doorway to the narrow road that leads to life. You won’t find many people on the narrow road, but human companionship isn’t the goal of the invitation. You will find God Himself and become immersed in the warmth of His personhood, insulated from the cold, thin air of a life void of soul-level fulfillment. As you abide in the permanent home of His presence, you may be alone but not lonely. God the Father, Jesus the Son, and the Holy Spirit become the friends you’ve always longed for. Holy intimacy with a personal, Trinitarian God becomes the sustaining light of every new morning and every new beginning. The fullness of friendship becomes the brightest-burning star in the blackest of nights, in the cruelest of endings. God becomes the grace we need to say goodbye and thank you in the same breath. His sufficiency oxygenates our sentences and our seasons.
This kind of intimacy with God is available to all of us because of the Cross of Jesus. May 2025 be the year we move past distant, transactional faith and into the fullness of intimate friendship with Him.
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