To come to the Father in Jesus’ name, not our own, is to come fully cognizant that we are being heard because of the costly grace in which we stand.

Your joyful admiration has a fearful aspect to it. You are in awe, and therefore you don’t want to mess up.

However, if we have made God our greatest love, and if knowing and pleasing him is our highest pleasure, it transforms both what and how we pray for a happy life.

Which view of prayer is the better one? Is peaceful adoration or assertive supplication the ultimate form of prayer? That question assumes that the answer is completely either-or, which is unlikely.

The power of our prayers, then, lies not primarily in our effort and striving, or in any technique, but rather in our knowledge of God.

Augustine then cites Proverbs 30:7–9 as an example: “Give me neither poverty nor riches: Feed me with food appropriate for me lest I be full and deny you . . . or lest I be poor, and steal and take the name of my God in vain.”

When I forget I’m being sanctified through the presence of God’s Holy Spirit—I give up on myself, stop trying to change.

It is remarkable that in all of his writings Paul’s prayers for his friends contain no appeals for changes in their circumstances.

When I forget I am justified by faith alone—I give place to guilt and regret about the past. I therefore live in bondage to idols of power and money that make me feel better about myself.