Prayer is an exercise in theology and the language of prayer is the vocabulary of theology. Even so, we must acknowledge that the infinite and perfect God cannot be fully known by finite human language. We must acknowledge the mysterious and apophatic nature of God. Prayer places us in a posture of bowing down while looking up in wonder. The act of prayer is to acknowledge that God is. As we encounter God in the language of prayer and the place of worship, we are compelled to engage the mystery of the Holy One who is wholly other, uncreated, self-existent and omnipresent. As we step into that holy place we are at once terrified and at peace, overwhelmed by the omnipresent One. To “see” God is to fall “like a dead man” (to be slain in the Spirit?!) (Revelation 1:17; cf. Ex. 33:20).
Continue reading “How Prayer Reveals the Holiness of God”
