Prayer – Day 8

What is prayer, then, in the fullest sense? Prayer is continuing a conversation that God has started through his word and his grace, which eventually becomes a full encounter with him.

Throughout most of the great Old Testament book that bears his name, Job cries out to God in agonized prayer. For all his complaints, Job never walks away from God or denies his existence—he processes all his pain and suffering through prayer. Yet he cannot accept the life God is calling him to live. Then the skies cloud over and God speaks to Job “out of the whirlwind” (Job 38:1). The Lord recounts in vivid detail his creation and sustenance of the universe and of the natural world. Job is astonished and humbled by this deeper vision of God (Job 40:3–5) and has a breakthrough. He finally prays a mighty prayer of repentance and adoration (Job 42:1–6).

The question of the book of Job is posed in its very beginning. Is it possible that a man or woman can come to love God for himself alone, so that there is a fundamental contentment in life regardless of circumstances (Job 1:9)? Yes, this is possible, but only through prayer.

Excerpted from PRAYER: Experiencing Awe and Intimacy with God, by Timothy Keller, published by Penguin Books, an imprint of the Penguin Publishing Group, a division of Penguin Random House LLC. Copyright © 2014 by Timothy Keller.

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