The Mountain of Prayer

Mountains are a classic metaphor for prayer. A lot of praying in the Bible happens on mountaintops. Once, when Jesus was praying on a Galilean mountain, his disciples asked him to teach them to pray. So Jesus did what all Jewish rabbis did to teach their disciples how to pray, He gave them a prayer to pray. He didn't teach on abstract concepts or sentimental ideas, he gave them a specific prayer. Without being taught how to properly pray, we simply recycle and reinforce our own fears, desires, and misguided opinions. We never make any actual progress; we just keep trying to get God to do what we would do. We try to manage God. It is a pagan concept of prayer to attempt to cajole God into doing what we want. The Christian concept of prayer is that we need to be transformed by God. The primary purpose of prayer is not to advise or manage God, but to be properly formed.