[ROUND-UP] 1. Prayer in the Old Testament, Praying Our Questions, & the Influence of Secularism

  In this episode, recorded late last Spring, Paul, Jon and Liz reflect on some aspects of the "A Praying Church" material that resonated in recent conversations and events. “We bring our bad praying and our secularism to the Old Testament and so we miss some of the richness of prayer there. One practical reason is because while in the New Testament prayer is generally just called ‘prayer,’ in the Old Testament, you have this really rich variety of language that covers the range of what it is to be human before God.” “Prayer is not central. God is central.” “Secularism is pervasive. It’s a mindset that makes functionally prayer as a window dressing… I love to pray these gigantic kingdom prayers and ask questions, because it lets you see the story unfold. It’s just fascinating what God does. It’s just a lot more interesting though than what I would come up with."