Like Jacob in the desert, God invites us to a wrestling match

As human beings, we don’t pray in one world and live in another. We are called to have an integrity, a unity, between the way we pray and the way we live.

If we live by our own whims and neglect moral goodness, then our prayer will be depleted of the grace it needs to flourish. If we live a morally upright life but do not pray, then we can quickly fall into a pharisaism. We need both prayer and a morally good life if we we’re going to draw close to God.

Seeking to live...