Prayer is the key that fits the lock of the door into a deepening relationship with God. We are invited by the Living God to approach him in intimate conversation. Jesus taught his disciples to pray (Matthew 6:9-13), then left them with a model for prayer from his own intercession with the Father (John 17). The earliest church gathered regularly for prayer (Acts 2:42), and the epistles of Paul are filled with examples of prayer and exhortations to pray.