This

month we are going to explore the mystery and majesty of prayer. At

first we might think of prayer as mainly “communicating with God.”

That’s a good start, but there’s much more to it.

At

its core, prayer involves an ever-deepening relationship with God.

Prayer cultivates a deep desire for God, the kind of longing for God

that Psalm 84 expresses so well. Through prayer we are able to

actually experience the presence of God.

In

the Old Testament, God’s presence was most evident at the

temple—the “courts of the Lord” poetically described in Psalm

84. The temple was God’s “dwelling place,” the destination of

all who traveled on pilgrimage to Jerusalem.

Notice

that the psalmist describes people whose “hearts

are set on pilgrimage.” This highlights the essence of prayer and

the beauty of how we as New Testament believers experience God’s

presence today. Because Jesus has paid the price for our sin and has

opened the way for us into God’s presence, God is now present with

his people through his Holy Spirit living in us. As a result, every

Christian is now a temple of the Holy Spirit (1 Corinthians

6:19). So we can experience God’s presence through prayer anywhere

and at any time. God has come to us. He is as close as our own

hearts. To meet with God and grow closer to him, all we need to do is

approach him in prayer.