The basic form of prayer is the basic expression of faith. That expression says, "I believe in You."

Language and words are so inter-related with the meaning and content of faith that we cannot separate the two. The message, the witness, the preaching, all deal with words. But faith, for the believer, is the answer to the message conveyed through the word of the Scriptures or the words of the preacher.

The Bible and Christian prophesy are simultaneously the word of men and the word of God; so both faith and the message rely on words. Those words could be written in the third person: man is a creation from God; God loved mankind and saved him from damnation. But the characteristic of prayer is that it uses the first and second persons, not the third. Prayer uses "I" and "we" and "you." So prayer says not, "I believe in it", speaking as a concept, "I believe in you," This is original prayer. The word of God can only be discovered and expressed in prayer, since the word of God is an expression of faith, not just a neutral concept.

God is a person and must be met in personal terms. Meeting God requires an answer, not just a realization of presence. We can not acknowledge merely that God exists, for by that acknowledgment we approach and meet Him. Meeting God means that He speaks, talks to us and wants us to talk with Him.

No matter how transcendental our experience, God as a person is the basis of our faith. That expression of faith is always, "I believe in you." Without this approach our words are the "empty phrases" that our Lord criticized so sharply in Matthew 6:7 ff. Every prayer must repeat, "I believe in You" in its endless variations. The frequency of prayer depends on how often we need to exercise our faith. It does not mean that we should pray according to our moods. Faith demands to be practiced as an inherent part of our life–our everyday life. The professional practices regularly; this is true of all professionals, even professional Christians. We must practice our faith--in prayer. It should not become an idle routine, but should be a truly human, freely used form of exercise.

Prayer is the characteristic form of the living faith. If we deny prayer, we deny our faith. The necessity of prayer can only be disputed if we reject the Word of God. We pray because it is the natural correlation to Faith. We pray because we believe!