Every well-meaning person who tries to live a life of prayer quickly discovers that the strategies and masks which they use to shield them from a painful world also insulate them from truly reaching out to God. These strategies might include working hard to gain recognition, being ‘good’ to buy affection, or manipulating others to establish position. They may help us to win success in the world, but as we have seen, they really signal our failure to redeem our childhood. Brought into the world of prayer, they suddenly appear for what they are: death-giving rather than life-giving.

The painful cost of prayer is to confront these signs of our brokenness, allowing God to heal our humanity.

—James Houston