Our Great Refuge, thank you for calling us to prayer. You are not far away; you are near, and you hear us when we pray. Let us pour out our hearts to you without ceasing. Let us pray without guile, bringing our true selves before your throne of grace. Amen.[1]
The breath of the Christian life
Psalm 70 NRSV
Be pleased, O God, to deliver me. O Lord, make haste to help me! Let those be put to shame and confusion who seek my life. Let those be turned back and brought to dishonor who desire to hurt me. Let those who say, “Aha, Aha!” turn back because of their shame.
Let all who seek you rejoice and be glad in you. Let those who love your salvation say evermore, “God is great!”
But I am poor and needy; hasten to me, O God! You are my help and my deliverer; O Lord, do not delay!
Matthew Henry
While here we behold Jesus Christ set forth in poverty and distress, we also see him denouncing just and fearful punishment on his Jewish, heathen, and antichristian enemies; and pleading for the joy and happiness of his friends, to his Father’s honor. Let us apply these things to our own troubled circumstances, and in a believing manner bring them, and the sinful causes thereof, to our remembrance. Urgent trials should always awake fervent prayers. [2]
Hebrews 12:1-3 NRSV
Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight and the sin that clings so closely, and let us run with perseverance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus the pioneer and perfecter of our faith, who for the sake of the joy that was set before him endured the cross, disregarding its shame, and has taken his seat at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider him who endured such hostility against himself from sinners, so that you may not grow weary or lose heart.
Pete Greig
The goal of my faith is not Christianity but Christ, not religion but relationship, not spiritual formation but love. Thinking now about some of the spiritual disciplines I try to maintain – fasting, Sabbath-keeping, church attendance, bible study, tithing, silence and solitude, or even personal prayer – I ask myself if any of these practices are becoming ends in themselves, hindrances to holiness – inconsequential and even “hurtful” to my relationship with Christ.[3]
The point of prayer is not the power that it releases but the person it reveals. I don’t pray because I’m into prayer. I pray because I’m into Jesus, so we talk. I don’t believe in the power of prayer. I believe in the power of Jesus, so I ask for his help. The vision is Jesus. Everything else is secondary. Urgent voices are calling us to abandon the familiar comforts of Christendom, to strike out into the unknown and rediscover the Nazarene. We need a theophany, a rediscovery of the terror of his proximity. We are overfamiliar with holy things.[4]
John Piper
Prayer is the way you walk by the Spirit. Prayer is the way you walk by faith. In other words, it’s the breath of the Christian life all day long. Just breathe in, breathe out. It’s the way you live.[5]
New City Catechism
Question #38
What is prayer?
Prayer is pouring out our hearts to God in praise, petition, confession of sin, and thanksgiving.[6]
Question #39
With what attitude should we pray?
With love, perseverance, and gratefulness; in humble submission to God’s will, knowing that, for the sake of Christ, he always hears our prayers.[7]
Assist us mercifully with your grace, Lord God of our salvation, that we may enter with joy upon the meditation of those mighty acts by which you have promised us life and immortality; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, forever and ever. Amen.[8]
Fight the Good Fight
If you have found this meditation helpful, take a moment and give thanks to God. Then share what you learned with a friend. This is how the grace of God spreads (2 Corinthians 4.15).
[1] The New City Catechism Devotional, 2017, p. 169.
[2] Matthew Henry and Thomas Scott, Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary (Oak Harbor, WA: Logos Research Systems, 1997), Ps 70:1.
[3] Pete Greig, Lectio 365 devotional for March 30, 2026 from 24-7 Prayer.
[4] Pete Greig, Dirty Glory (Hodder and Stoughton, 2016), pp. 54-57.
[5] The New City Catechism Devotional, 2017, p. 168.
[6] The New City Catechism Devotional, 2017, p. 167.
[7] The New City Catechism Devotional, 2017, p. 171.
[8]Collect for Wednesday of Holy Week, Anglican Book of Common Prayer, 2019.
