This book has become one of the most important ones I own. I don't have the time to sit & give an adequate review of it, so I'll post some others thoughts & tell you that I cannot recommend this too highly! Even if you don't agree with every jot & tittle, I guarantee you it'll get you praying more frequently & more faithfully.Amazon reviewer:
First, he honestly and precisely identifies the barriers to prayer - a short attention span, guilt, inconsistency, and weak attempts to follow a formula that would somehow make my prayers acceptable to God. Yet his winsome way of presenting these problems are not a condemnation of our failures, but are actually an encouragement not to give up.
Somewhere in the middle of the book, it begins to dawn on you that a relationship with God that is guided by prayer just might be attainable. Then Paul introduces a simple way to keep track of the many prayer stories that develop as we carry on an intimate conversation with a God who wants us to know and love him...
This is as fine a book on prayer that you will ever read, but it is so much more. It is the story of our struggle to actually live like we believe that our Heavenly father really does love us. If we did, nothing could keep us from being committed to the day by day hard work of prayer. Paul exegetes our struggle in a way that is convicting, insight giving and encouraging. This is a book on prayer that actually makes you want to pray!"
- "Prayer is not the central theme of this book. Getting to know a Person... is the center."
For Jesus "prayer is about relationship. When he prays, he is not performing a duty; he is getting close to his Father."
- "Personal prayer is one of the last great bastions of legalism."
- "How do we structure our adult conversations? We don't... Why would prayer be any different? After all, God is a person."
- "We received Jesus because we were weak, and that's how we follow him... We forget that helplessness is how the Christian life works."
- "Prayer is bringing our helplessness to Jesus."
- "Strong Christians do pray more, but they pray more because they realize how weak they really are."
- "Weakness is the channel that allows us to access grace."
- "You don't need self-discipline to pray continuously; you just need to be poor in spirit."
