“Prayer often precedes belief. Most popular understandings of prayer get this backwards. We think of prayer as mostly self-expressive. In this way of thinking, we begin with beliefs and feelings about God and the world, and because of these, we learn to pray. Our prayers put words to our inner life. But prayer actually shapes our inner life. And if we pray the prayers we’ve been given, regardless of how we feel about them or God at the time, we sometimes find, to our surprise, that they teach us how to believe.” (Tish Harrison Warren, Prayer in the Night)