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Summary
- Twelve short prayers for wanting to be closer to God, grouped by where a person actually is: starting out, the dry stretch, and the ordinary middle.
- They do not try to produce a feeling. Psalm 51:10, Psalm 139:23, Psalm 63:1, Psalm 13:1 and Mark 9:24 anchor them.
- One is for wanting to want it, one for a first step dull enough to actually do, and one for a distracted mind where bringing the attention back is the prayer.
- Closeness is not a feeling: the psalms of lament are prayers by people who felt abandoned and kept praying.
- It is not earned — James 4:8 is an invitation, not a transaction — and it is not done alone; almost every instruction in the letters is addressed to a group.
Bibliography (Click to show)
Sources: Scripture quotations from the NIV via BibleGateway (Psalm 13:1; 51:10; 63:1; 139:23; James 1:4; 4:8; Mark 9:24; Luke 15:20). The plural address of most New Testament instruction, obscured by English “you”, is a standard observation in commentary.
