“There is no one who calls upon your name, who raises himself to take hold of you.”- Isaiah 64:7
As Timothy Keller continues Chapter 2 of Prayer, he states that in ancient times people appealed to a great man by taking hold of his cloak. Similarly, St. Paul sees prayer as a way to get more of God himself. Paul assumed the priority of the inner life with God- to take hold of God.
Pastor Keller asserts that unless we put a priority on the inner life, we turn ourselves into hypocrites. If the outer life takes priority, our lives will lack integrity. While outwardly we project confidence as well as spiritual and emotional health, inwardly we may be filled with anxiety, self-pity, and a desire for vengeance.
In order to discover who we really are, the author adds, we need to look at what we spend time thinking about when no one is looking or we’re not being forced to think about anything in particular. Pastor Keller goes on to describe spiritual integrity:
“The infallible test of spiritual integrity is your private prayer life. . . . Those with a genuinely lived relationship with God as Father . . . will inwardly want to pray and therefore will pray even though nothing on the outside is pressing them to do so. They pursue it even during times of spiritual dryness, when there is no social or experiential payoff.”
Today’s question: At this stage of your desert, transformational journey, how would you describe your prayer life? Please share.
Tomorrow’s blog: “The centrality of prayer”
