What is Prayer?

We begin a new series, and the topic could not be more important for this moment in history. We begin a series on the topic of prayer. In the United States, a vast majority of people say they pray, many of them at least once a day. Prayer is practiced even by some who believe in no God. But that almost demonstrates the confusion: many of us aren't totally sure what it is we are doing when we pray. As we jump into this series, we turn to Jesus and how he instructed us to pray, and what we find is that prayer, from a Christian perspective, is more than just a practice. It isn't just a way to slow our central nervous system or achieve altered states. It is more than a transaction or a change in attitude. Instead, it is the God-ordained way that we take part in the life of God.