The words of David echo over the scene: “I will not sacrifice to the LORD my God burnt offerings that cost me nothing.”

The very part of her story she wanted to erase or hide in the fine print at the bottom of the page became the very part of her story she’d never stop telling. That’s the kind of author God is. He doesn’t edit. He repurposes and redeems. He turns the worst moments into the irreplaceable, climactic ones.

David—that’s who wrote those prayers. You’ve probably heard of David—ancient Israel’s most famous figure, the king who set an unreachable bar for all subsequent kings, the man after God’s own heart, the one whose bloodline was promised to lead to the Messiah.

This isn’t a boisterous call to a more disciplined, legalistic, routine prayer life. It’s a quiet rebellion, a free choice to live our lives by a different order of loves, marching to a different beat in the procession of another King.

A daily prayer rhythm is about fidelity. It has absolutely everything to do with love and absolutely nothing to do with legalism. Jesus’ personal discipline was always about freedom and life. When he rolled out of bed and made his way alone to the Mount of Olives to pray, it was love that drove him there, not a spiritual scorecard. For Jesus, being

What anchors your day right now?

Prayer means the risk of facing silence where we’re addicted to noise.

The motive behind all true intercessory prayer is love for the other.

there was also the Spirit of the living God bending history in loving response to the prayed mumblings of a kid.