We live in a world of commodities and results, where everything must be optimized for our gain. Steeped in this environment, it's only normal that prayer, too, would become a means to an end--and yet, reducing this mysterious encounter with the living God to a "spiritual discipline" that must be "mastered" substitutes anxiety for relationship and striving for abiding. Resources on prayer tend to emphasize activity and results, the actions of the human connecting with the divine. What we truly need is a paradigm shift.

Wesley Ellis steps into this conundrum to remind us that despite what the world around us suggests, we are not in control. Prayer is God's, not ours; we receive prayer as a gift of God's grace and freedom, and not as something we accomplish. Ellis helps us see past our societal blinders and relax into the resonant relationship God intends.

What does it mean to let God start the conversation? With gentle humor and a deeply pastoral heart, Ellis guides readers into a liberative new way of being.