No discussion of purpose is complete without the word ‘prayer’. This fact is being driven home every step I’ve taken the past few months. As I move forward with buying a house, I am reminded anew today. I purposed man without prayer is a warship without a rudder. Sure, it is powerful, intimidating, but nothing more than a disaster in the making. As I’m redoubling my efforts to spend time in my Bible each morning, going through the Psalms, I am constantly amazed at the author. I’ve not even made it a third of the way through after many months, but I’m struck by the strength of their prayer life. Through despair, joy, defeat, victory, there is prayer after prayer. Jumping off the page is a certainty, a directness in the calls issued to the Father. And I can’t help but to feel envious, inferior.

Prayer with reckless abandon

There are pages of precise requests of God. There is boldness issued to a loving God in machine gun fashion. You see the beating, bleeding heart of a king desperately seeking The King. You see vulnerability, painful reality smeared across the pages. There is nothing left to the imagination in the pleas or the thanksgiving of the psalmist. Laid bare before your eyes, you see what a prayer life abandoned to loving God with all one’s heart looks like. It’s like an x-ray of the soul. Is this not a living, breathing example of Hebrews 4:13?

Prayer is purpose

We all want purpose in life, but how do we discern purpose? As I’m learning, it’s only through conversation with the Source of Purpose. If it’s life we seek, then we must consult Life Himself (John 14:6). Prayer is like anything else, to get a substance at its purest, we must find the source. And the only way we can bridge the infinite gap, we must rely on a perfect Savior and His constant intercession in prayer. But, not just any prayer. We are not villagers outside the kingdom gates pleading for a bucket of water. We are adopted sons and daughters, heirs of the King. Do you not know what kind of assurance and confidence our Father desires for us? Do you now know how much joy it gives Him when we are secure in His strength, love and provision? No, you don’t. You will never. And neither do I. That thought brings a tear to my eyes as I type.

In the days leading up the remembrance of Christ’s ultimate sacrifice, I beg us to rethink our attitude toward communing with Him. I ask us all to reconsider our prayer, or the lack thereof in my case. We all long for purpose. But purpose apart from prayer, disconnected from God, its source, is not purpose at all. So, pray. Pray as your life depends on it. Pray as your very soul does, as well. Pray boldly. Pray confidently. Pray often. And you will see the face of God smiling as never before. Life could never be the same. How beautiful.