Knitting a Conundrum

Only with prayer...
are we changed into the children God wants us to be.

Only with prayer....
do we get that sensitivity of heart that lets us love our enemies, do good to those who hurt us, that let us see the face of Jesus in the person we would rather run from.

Only with prayer...
can we develop that relationship with God that he wants us to have. Only in this way, by developing a relationship with God, do we open the way for his Word to perculate into the hardness of our hearts and become transformed.

St. Paul in Ephesians chapter 6 talks about putting on the armour of God to defeat the evil one, the "belt of truth," the "breastplate of righteousness," "the shield of faith," "the helmet of Salvation," "the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God"...but the bedrock for these is prayer: "Pray in the Spirit at all times in every prayer and supplication."

Without prayer, all these other things just sort of don't work like they should, and we give the evil one a chance to have his way with us.