© TaeHun Yoon, August 25, 1993

Prayer is the vital breath that unites God’s life with human existence. It is the emergence of new life and the inner strength that sustains believers against external powers.

John Calvin affirmed: “To know God is the highest purpose of life and the supreme joy.” To awaken to the presence of the living God is the greatest event of human existence.

The essence of answered prayer lies in our capacity to receive. God’s answers are His gifts to us. If we do not know how to accept them, we fall into great misfortune. Receptive prayer, therefore, is the means by which we discern God’s self-giving and perceive His greatest gifts.

Often prayer is abandoned midway because of a lack of patience in waiting for God’s response. Yet those who pray deeply recognize that the answer is already contained within the prayer itself. In waiting, listening, yielding, and opening ourselves to love, we experience the blessing of perceiving God’s response.

Expressive prayer is the act of speaking—communicating our thoughts, emotions, and will to God. Receptive prayer, however, is essential for completeness. Through it, God’s will and life transform our own. This receptive prayer, often called meditation, is the posture of listening to God’s Word.

Expressive prayer is like exhaling; receptive prayer is like inhaling. Expressive prayer pours out like the ebb tide; receptive prayer flows in like the flood tide, cleansing and renewing. Together they form the rhythm of true prayer.

Thus, prayer cannot be reduced to one-sided speech. Just as breathing requires both inhalation and exhalation, so prayer requires both expression and reception. Without this balance, spiritual life cannot be sustained.

Receptive prayer is the moment when we yield our will to God and allow His Word to shape us. It is not mere concentration, imagination, or positive thinking, but the profound and clear response of divine grace. When we entrust ourselves to the Creator, we are immersed in blessing.

In prayer, there is always the human who asks and the God who answers. The purpose of prayer is to connect God’s life with human life, sustaining balance and holiness in the believer’s earthly journey.