Peter Adam has drawn on his years of experience in biblical teaching, pastoral ministry and personal prayer to create a wonderful resource for Christians wanting to grow and deepen their prayerfulness. His main encouragement is to have our prayers anchored in God’s word. To let the bible shape our praying, whether it be praise, thanksgiving, confession, lament, or supplication.
“Prayerfulness is a sign of a healthy life of faith, of trust, of dependence on God’s grace, of gospel clarity, and lifelong learning from the BIble. Most of all, prayerfulness, enriched by the BIble, demonstrates a rich relationship with God the Father to whom we pray, God the Son our Saviour through whom we pray, and God the Holy Spirit who teaches us to pray in the Bible, and who prompts us and helps us to pray.“ (p7)I really appreciated the Trinitarian perspective throughout:
“God is our loving heavenly Father who loves to hear our prayers. His son, the Lord Jesus Christ, prayed to his father when he was on earth, and now prays for us at God's right hand. The Holy Spirit reminds us that we are children of God, prompts us to pray to our Father, and covers our ignorance in praying.” (p27)We can pray God’s promises back to him, and ask him to act on them. Therefore, our view of God will influence our prayers:
“Little God, little prayers. Big God, big prayers.” (p38)Adam first explores what prayer is - our communication with God. Some may have appreciated a clear, short definition at this point. However, since the whole book expands our definition of prayer, maybe that would be too simplistic. He then turns to some of the reasons we don’t pray, including overconfidence in ourselves, cultural challenges, internalising reality, and sin. These were helpful prompts to consider the multifaceted factors that can lead to prayerlessness and how to address them personally.
The majority of the book encourages the reader to pray biblical prayers. This includes writing prayers responsively to reading God’s word, and using it to shape our confessions, lament and praise. He reasons that God loves and hears all our prayers, including the simple, cautious and uncertain ones, but he also wants us to grow in our prayers and communication with him, to go deeper. He comments that “God loves you as you are, but he loves you too much to leave you as you are” (p178). What a great mix of comfort and challenge! For, as Adam says, “If you can’t turn a bible passage into prayer, you probably can’t put it into practice.” (p105)
Chapters further explore the practice of praying the bible, the Lord’s Prayer, and Jesus and the apostles’ model of prayer. He covers lament, repentance and confession, as well as praying for spiritual protection, and how to think about unanswered prayer. He addresses corporate prayer and confession, and gives guidance to those who pray publicly. Woven throughout, and collated into one chapter at the end, are lots of practical ideas and tips to help the praying person who wants to learn and grow in this discipline.
About half the book contains content - Adam’s input and thoughts. The other half contains numerous prayers that Adam has written. These could be used as they are or could prompt one to write their own prayers. Some may feel long, but they are a great resource and encouragement to have higher expectations of our prayers. I would have loved to see these available as a digital version, especially so that people could adapt them to their own purpose (practically for copyright reasons, that could be tricky). They also have a wide usage: there were individual prayers, corporate prayers and even suggestions for services of lament.
I had only two niggles. One is that it was on the long side and felt repetitive at points. Yet, some parts felt generalised and could have been more specific or illustrated further. However, this does allow the reader to adapt it for themselves. The second was that there was a lot of “should” language throughout. It could have been worded more encouragingly and less like a command at points. Other language (like: we want to, it is useful to, it is of benefit to, etc) is perhaps more inviting.
This is certainly not the first book I have read on prayer. Over the decades, I have been encouraged by many, including Praying the Scriptures for Your Children (Berndt), A Praying Life (Miller), and Prayer (Keller). Each of these challenged me to grow in my prayer life and to put the time and effort into that process. Therefore, Adam’s comments that we must learn how to pray and we need training with it struck me. We should be teaching one another how to pray better, both new believers and seasoned saints. I can’t imagine anyone who thinks their prayer life is as rich, varied or scripture-focused as it could be. For those who want to explore this more and learn practical ways to do so, this book is an excellent step in that direction.
Chapters further explore the practice of praying the bible, the Lord’s Prayer, and Jesus and the apostles’ model of prayer. He covers lament, repentance and confession, as well as praying for spiritual protection, and how to think about unanswered prayer. He addresses corporate prayer and confession, and gives guidance to those who pray publicly. Woven throughout, and collated into one chapter at the end, are lots of practical ideas and tips to help the praying person who wants to learn and grow in this discipline.
About half the book contains content - Adam’s input and thoughts. The other half contains numerous prayers that Adam has written. These could be used as they are or could prompt one to write their own prayers. Some may feel long, but they are a great resource and encouragement to have higher expectations of our prayers. I would have loved to see these available as a digital version, especially so that people could adapt them to their own purpose (practically for copyright reasons, that could be tricky). They also have a wide usage: there were individual prayers, corporate prayers and even suggestions for services of lament.
I had only two niggles. One is that it was on the long side and felt repetitive at points. Yet, some parts felt generalised and could have been more specific or illustrated further. However, this does allow the reader to adapt it for themselves. The second was that there was a lot of “should” language throughout. It could have been worded more encouragingly and less like a command at points. Other language (like: we want to, it is useful to, it is of benefit to, etc) is perhaps more inviting.
This is certainly not the first book I have read on prayer. Over the decades, I have been encouraged by many, including Praying the Scriptures for Your Children (Berndt), A Praying Life (Miller), and Prayer (Keller). Each of these challenged me to grow in my prayer life and to put the time and effort into that process. Therefore, Adam’s comments that we must learn how to pray and we need training with it struck me. We should be teaching one another how to pray better, both new believers and seasoned saints. I can’t imagine anyone who thinks their prayer life is as rich, varied or scripture-focused as it could be. For those who want to explore this more and learn practical ways to do so, this book is an excellent step in that direction.
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