It’s possible that the more we’ve learned to over-curate and chase convenience, the very nature of prayer has become increasingly alien to us today. Prayer is an activity in which we usually slow down, often become quiet, and place our focus on God. Those things may not easily align with many of our social fixations, even if deep down we long for them.
In wider Christian tradition, prayer is also often thought of first as a discipline, something we had better do and work at. Other times prayer is thought of first as devotion, maybe how we show God we’re truly invested. And though neither of these approaches are wrong, we should ask if they’re the best “first position.”
Prayer is — even more so — the activity which takes us back to that reality that many have forgotten today. The ultimate reality of dependence on God. As we see all through Scripture, we are, after all, totally dependent creatures, set in God’s world.
There's yet another layer to uncover, however, a deeper place which produces a life of prayerful dependence. We can be dependent on a good deal of things. But we become truly reliant on something, we’re truly transformed and shaped by it when our dependency comes from a place of submission.
