Many books seek to teach us how to pray, but should we see prayer as something we do, or as something we try to do better? True prayer is what God does within us. True prayer is not primarily our action; it is what God does within us. The indwelling Spirit of the Son prays in us, joining our hearts to the prayers of the Son before the Father. Our task is simple—to open ourselves to God as he prays in and through us.

Through prayer, God touches the world, but as we open ourselves to his movement within, he first touches and transforms us. We become the people he desires us to be as we learn to live in openness before him. This is very different from how most of us think about prayer.

In prayer, we are drawn into the triune communion of Father, Son, and Spirit. Within that shared life, the Spirit enables us to grasp “the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge” (Ephesians 3:20).  God’s love is always far beyond what we can fully grasp, and so prayer, too, is always greater than we can imagine. No method or formula can ever make us “masters” of prayer, because true prayer depends on God’s initiative, not ours.

Speaking words towards God isn’t necessarily prayer. God has opened himself to us, and his Spirit now prays within us, crying, “Abba, Father.” We join this movement as we turn toward God through Jesus in the Spirit. Anything else may resemble prayer, but genuine prayer always begins with an open heart responding to God’s own life within us.