The Purpose of Prayer
To understand prayer is to conceptualize something that is far greater than human comprehension. Think for a moment about the universe, which contains more than one hundred billion galaxies, with more than one hundred billion stars per galaxy.1 How can one explain that the God who created and holds in His hands such a vast universe (Job 37–39) can pause from all the demands for His attention to listen to, contemplate, and even act upon the petitions of human beings? Actually, it is not a matter of asking how God can pause to hear us pray, but why? Why would such a powerful and limitless entity, a force far greater than human words could ever describe, give ear to the thoughts and utterings of finite creatures—specks in such a grand and complex system?