I just listened to a wonderful sermon by Tyler Staton: https://open.spotify.com/episode/0IjK6yMUXMZ9ah8zuTxxV8?si=_QW8yoZ6TOK-P_JLlg3PAg
A few quotes I resonate with strongly:
"In the place of prayer, belief becomes knowledge"
"Without prayer, belief becomes agonizing. Prayer is meant to be the hydration of the spiritual life... Spiritual knowledge has to be inhabited. 'Belief' is buying into a theory. 'Knowing' is to personally, vulnerably trust the theory that you already believe in."
"It's not enough to believe in the love of God. We have to allow God to love us exactly as we are, naked and unashamed, and the way that we let that love in, is prayer. As we pray the blinding light of God's love seeps into every crack in our inner world and the Spirit opens our eyes to discover ourselves as we really are, fixed in the firm gaze of God. That's the invitation of prayer. I believe in the love of the Father--prayer is the experience of that love. I believe in the friendship of the son--prayer is the experience of that friendship. I believe in the supernatural power of the Spirit--prayer is the experience of that power."
“What if the hour you spend in the prayer room is when you refocus on Jesus so that you can carry His presence with you into the other 23 hours of the day with a heightened awareness that He is with you, that He likes you, that He is for you, that He hears your thoughts. You start to pray in real time. You instinctually lift situations to the Lord in the actual moment that you experience them…. You’re no longer deferring all of your prayers to some later holier moment, because your whole life is becoming that holier moment.” – Brennan Manning
These are realities I have begun to know rather than merely believe, and it is pure joy. The delight that accompanies the realization of how incredibly attentive the God of the universe is to you, personally, is astonishing and exhilarating. One day perhaps I will detail what this journey has been like for me.
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