THE
POSSIBILITY
of PRAYER

FINDING STILLNESS WITH
GOD IN A RESTLESS WORLD

JOHN STARKE

Introduction

PART 1: THE POSSIBILITY OF PRAYER

1 The Impossibility of Prayer

2 The Places of Prayer

3 The Invitation of Prayer

4 Outgrowing the Reactionary Heart

5 Pain and Prayer

6 Waiting and Prayer

PART 2: THE PRACTICE OF PRAYER

7 Communion

8 Meditation

9 Solitude

10 Fasting and Feasting

11 Sabbath Resting

12 Corporate Worship

Conclusion

Acknowledgments

Praise for The Possibility of Prayer

About the Author

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INTRODUCTION

I WAKE UP WITH some effort at 5:30 a.m. and it’s still dark. It is quiet, but that won’t last long. The kids will be up soon, hustling to pour their Cheerios, comb each other’s hair, throw their backpacks on, and make it out the door before the 1 Train comes to take us away to our day. But not yet. It is still quiet. Just me with my coffee.

The lists and notes scattered around my desk tempt me to start my day early. There’s a lot to do today: people who need care, a sermon that needs attention, and a few meetings that require some thought. Those tasks call out: Come to me, all who are anxious and want to get stuff done! Don’t you want to get stuff done? Yes, my heart says, yes! I want to get stuff done.

But not yet. There will be time for that soon. Not enough time, for sure, but time for it. Since there is never enough time, I’m reminded that all I am, all I long for, all my hopes and plans can never be fulfilled and accomplished in time. Time always runs out and leaves me disappointed. My heart doesn’t seem to accept the limitations that time offers. It has eternity pumping all the way through to the bottom. I need something more than just enough time.

I remember reading a book on how to best take advantage of all 168 hours of the week. Something in me wants to see each of those as opportunities to accomplish all that I want to get done and satisfy everyone I desperately do not want to disappoint. We crave glory and think we can pack it into 168 hours. No wonder there’s never enough time. “Man is the creature with a mystery in his heart that is bigger than himself.”1 The mystery within isn’t the problem; it’s the context in which we try to work out the mystery that fails us. The inside is bigger than the outside.

Here is a spiritual peculiarity to explore: that eternity is what we crave, and the first thing our disillusioned brains think to do is cram it into the hours of the working week. I need something more than enough time—time management can’t be the answer here. My notes and lists will have to wait.

I move from my desk to my chair in the corner. Psalm 141 helps me pray: “Let my prayer be counted as incense before you.” Yes, that’s a good way to begin: “incense before you.” Like an aroma that provokes pleasure and satisfaction—that’s what I want my prayers to be like.

But how can they? I am filled with inner conflicts. I am full of contradictions and mixed motivations. In Psalm 141 the ...