abk4u:Developing a Healthy Prayer Life

 

 abk4u aims to review Christian books and authors with the intent of finding…
 a book for you

 

“Prayer is the act of forging a connection between two specific points: our human needs and the resources of God offered to us in Christ… Prayer identifies the desires of the heart and expresses them to God.”

    A few weeks back, during a study on Acts chapter 4, a visiting speaker at our Church highly recommended a book on prayer. I’m glad he did because I’ve found Developing a Healthy Prayer Life by Joel Beeke and James Beeke a real aid in… well- developing a healthy prayer life!

  Each short chapter examines a brief passage of scripture in order to bring out some challenge or thought regarding prayer. The table of contents reads much like a list of adjectives! Titles include: Pray privately, Pray boldly and Pray intercedingly.

   One chapter which particularly struck me was Pray in Christ’s name. I had always previously viewed the conclusion ‘for Jesus' sake’ as one that meant “answer my prayer because I’m asking it on behalf of Jesus.” For example, “I ask that I might be bolder in evangelism, so that Jesus is glorified.” However, as DaHPL pointed out, our prayers only come to God because of Jesus’ intercession for us. So, when we pray in Christ’s name what we are actually doing is declaring that Christ is our mouthpiece. When we pray ‘in Jesus name’ we aren’t expecting our prayers to be answered because of our oration or our goodness, instead we expect our prayers to be answered because God’s son is the one bringing them to God!

“Praying in the name of Christ is not to base my hope and expectation of being heard upon the merits of my “good” prayers. Rather, it is to pray putting all my trust in Jesus Christ’s merits and his intercession.”

    I don’t want to talk too much, and thus steal the thunder (so to speak) from the book itself! Personally, I have it on my kindle and I try to read a chapter each evening. But if another system works better for you then give it a try!

   Prayer is such a vital topic for the Christian. It is crucial to his- or her- continued walk with the Lord. How can we love and serve the Lord if we do not talk with him? This book is a really scripturally based aid in the area of prayer.