With our recent focus on the Lord’s Prayer during our parish meetings I thought it might be helpful to mention a few books on prayer that are worth reading and considering. Of course, it should go without saying but I’ll say it anyway–not everything in any of these books is infallible! But these books are all worth looking at and I have been helped and motivated by them. Thomas a’ Kempis properly instructs:
Do not read to satisfy curiosity or to pass the time, but study such things as move your heart to devotion.
These are a few books that will move your heart to devotion.
The God Who Hears by W. Bingham Hunter (IVP, 1986). I used a nugget out of this book the other night. Hunter connects our prayers to the rest of our lives. He writes,
From a biblical point of view, prayer is related to everything that we are and everything that God is. God does not respond to our prayers. God responds to us; to our whole life. What we say to him cannot be separted from what we think, feel, will and do. Prayer is communication from whole persons to the Wholeness which is the living God. Prayer is misunderstood until we see it this way. (p. 13)
Hunter has a good discussion of prayer “in Jesus name” which he summarizes under four components: 1) It seeks the glory of God, 2)Its foundation is the death, resurrection and intercession of Jesus, 3) It is offered by Jesus’ obedient disciples, and 4) It asks what Jesus himself would pray for.
If God Already Knows, Why Pray? by Douglas F. Kelly (Wolgemuth and Hyatt, 1989). Dr. Kelly is professor of sytematic theology at Reformed Theological Seminary. What I particularly like about this book is that Kelly affirms a strong view of God’s sovereignty but also affirms a robust view of petitionary prayer. Don’t let the title throw you off too much. Kelly does deal with the problem of the title but the book has so much more about prayer and our prayer lives. In speaking about the West’s tendency toward deism he urges upon the church the following:
If we really believed that God was intervening in this world all the time, in answer to the prayers of His people, and if we were convinced that it is our prayers that change the course of lives as well as nations, would not hundreds of thousands of believers be giving top priority to standing in the gap and interceding? Would not the church in our Western cultures be praying a great deal more? Surely we have become deists in practice, if not in name! (pp. 133-134)
Kelly, in a chapter entitled “Prayer Changes Others,” describes the events of 1858 in Charleston, South Carolina under the ministry of John L. Girardeau. The congregation of Zion Church was praying for the Holy Spirit and revival in Charleston. Kelly quotes from George A. Blackburn who was Girardeau’s son-in-law and was present when the Spirit “showed-up.” Blackburn narrates:
This began with a prayer meeting that constantly increased until the house was filled. Some of the officers of the church wanted him to commence preaching services, but he steadily refused, waiting for the outpouring of the Spirit.
His view was that the Father had given to Jesus, as the King and Head of the church, the gift of the Holy Spirit, and Jesus in His sovereign administration of the affairs of his church, bestowed him upon whomsoever He pleased, and in whatever measure He pleased. Day after day he, therefore, kept his prayer addressed directly to the mediatorial throne for the Holy Spirit in mighty reviving power.
One evening, while leading the people in prayer, he received a sensation as if a bolt of electricity had struck his head and diffused itself through his whole body. For a little while he stood speechless under the strange physical feeling. Then he said: “The Holy Spirit has come; we will begin preaching tomorrow evening.”
He closed the service with a hymn, dismissed the congregation, and came down from the pulpit; but no one left the house. The whole congregation had quietly resumed its seat. Instantly he realized the situation. The Holy Spirit had not only come to him–he had also taken possession of the hearts of the people.
Immediately he began exhorting them to accept the Gospel. They began to sob, softly, like the falling of rain; then, with deeper emotion, to weep bitterly or to rejoice loudly, according to their circumstances. It was midnight before he could dismiss his congregation.
The meeting went on night and day for eight weeks. Large numbers of both white and black were converted and joined the various churches of the city. His own was wonderfully built up, not only in numbers, but also in experience that remained in the church. (pp. 140-141)
Kelly’s book is full of examples and stories that illlustrate the rich and vibrant life of prayer and the God who answers his children. Again, Kelly is Reformed in his theology but his book is Scripture driven and not the philosophical musings of an abstract systematic theologian. It is Reformed in the best sense of the word. And best of all, it is a book that awakens desires for prayer.
Prayer by O. Hallesby (Augsburg, 1931). My edition is the Augsburg pocket paperback edition of 1971. I first heard of this book from reading Kelly’s book above. Hallesby was a Lutheran seminary professor until his death in 1961. This book covers a number of topics but what is most edifying is that in reading Hallesby one has the feeling that this man has been often in prayer and knows the dynamics–both positive and negative–that attend prayer. The theology is not complex but his teaching is deep, instructive, and, at times, convicting. Hallesby begins his book with a quotation of Revelation 3.20: “Behold, I stand at the door and knock: if any man hear my voice and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me.” He then pens the following as the first sentences of his book:
I doubt that I know of a passage in the whole Bible which throws greater light upon prayer than this one does. It is, it seems to me, the key which opens the door into the holy and blessed realm of prayer.
To pray is to let Jesus come into our hearts.
This teaches us, in the first place, that it is not our prayer which moves the Lord Jesus. It is Jesus who moves us to pray. He knocks. Thereby He makes known His desire to come in to us. Our prayers are always a result of Jesus knocking at our heart’s doors. (p. 11)
Hallesby’s chapters include discussions on “difficulties in prayer” as well as “wrestling in prayer.” I’ll provide just one quotation from his section “prayer as work.”
We are inclined to think that when we are real busy in the work of the kingdom of God, then we can without danger spend less time in prayer. This way of thinking is in our very blood. And Satan see to it that it is quickened into life as just the right time.
It is, therefore, necessary for the Spirit of God to burn into our hearts this mystery, that the most important work we have to do is that which must be done on our knees, alone with God, away from the bustle of the world and the plaudits of men.
This work is the most important of all, because it is prerequisite to all the rest of the work we have to do in the kingdom of God: preaching, pastoral work, meetings, societies, administrative groups, organization and solicitation of funds. If the labor of prayer does not precede, as well as accompany, all our work in the kingdom, it will become nothing but a work of man, more or less capably done and with more or less effort and agitation as the case may be, but resulting in nothing but weariness both to ourselves and to others.
The work of praying is prerequisite to all other work in the kingdom of God, for the simple reason that it is by prayer that we couple the powers of heaven to our helplessness, the powers which can turn water into wine and remove mountains in our own life and in the lives of others, the powers which can awaken those who sleep in sin and raise up the dead, the powers which can capture strongholds and make the impossible possible. (pp. 80-81)
So much more could be quoted from these books but hopefully the above comments will stir you to consider these books and, more importantly, stir you to pray!