I know the weight of carrying more than I should. And usually it's because I've refused to release something before taking on something else. If I want to choose a Best Yes, it's crucial I make room for it first. Otherwise, a Best Yes can quickly become a stressed yes. And a stressed yes is like snow on a tree that refuses to release its leaves. It causes cracks and breaks at our core.

Dear Lord, make me a courageous woman who isn't afraid to pray this prayer over and over in the days ahead. In Jesus' name. Amen.

Prayer is such an intimate act, a place of vulnerability. It is, hopefully, when we are our least guarded, our most honest selves. And this is good, of course; this is as it ought to be. When we come to God, we certainly want to come as honestly and openly as we can; we want to be our truest selves before him. Prayer lets us be in a place of need.

And certainly we see that God wants not merely an adventure, but an adventure to share. He didn't have to make us, but he wanted to. Though he knows the name of every star and his kingdom spans galaxies, God delights in being a part of our lives. Do you know why he often doesn't answer prayer right away? Because he wants to talk to us, and sometimes that's the only way to get us to stay and talk to him. His heart is for relationship, for shared adventure to the core.

Most people don't even try to learn the ways of the kingdom; they just go about their days with a practical agnosticism, hoping things work out, tossing up prayers like they hope to score on a Jesus lottery ticket.

Oswald Chambers, a man who wrote profoundly and elegantly on prayer, made a radical statement when he said, "The idea of prayer is not in order to get answers from God." Good heavens—it's not? What then is the purpose? "Prayer is perfect and complete oneness with God." A mighty truth is being uncovered here.

My soul just can't do life at the speed of smartphones. But I was asking it to; everybody's asking theirs to.

Now, if you believed both assumptions, if they were woven into your deepest convictions about the world, you would want to learn to pray like a soldier wants to learn to use his weapon, like a smoke jumper wants to learn survival skills. We really have no idea what sort of breakthrough is actually possible until we learn to pray. Perhaps we, too, will be ending droughts and stopping wildfires.

What do you want me to pray for them? Show me what to pray.

Essential prayer is conversational.

Communion with God is the one need of the soul beyond all other need," wrote George MacDonald. "Prayer is the beginning of that communion and some need is the motive of that prayer."

Fuzzy and unspecific prayers see fuzzy and unspecific results.