its most basic and fundamental level, we pray because God is a speaking God. Prayer derives from who and what God is, and the great feature of the God of the Bible, the God of the Christian faith, is that he is a speaking God. That is evident from the very first chapter of the Bible. Creation begins with the voice of God, with God speaking: “And God said, ‘Let there be light,’ and there was light” (Gen. 1:3). And so it goes on. “And God said” is the refrain