A Praying Life (Paul Miller)

It's extremely important for Christians to pray, as prayer is "the medium through which we experience and connect to God."  And yet "most Christians feel frustrated when it comes to prayer!"  Why?  Because we're not good at it.  In A Praying Life, Paul Miller discusses this challenge and offers some insights.

Selected Highlights
"Oddly enough, many people struggle to learn how to pray because they are focusing on praying, not on God."  It's important to remember that "prayer is all about relationship. It’s intimate and hints at eternity."  "You don’t experience God; you get to know him. You submit to him. You enjoy him. He is, after all, a person."  "Jesus’ example teaches us that prayer is about relationship. When he prays, he is not performing a duty; he is getting close to his Father. Any relationship, if it is going to grow, needs private space, time together without an agenda, where you can get to know each other. This creates an environment where closeness can happen, where we can begin to understand each other’s hearts."

How do you come to God?  Truthfully.  By taking off the masks we so often wear.  "The criteria for coming to Jesus is weariness. Come overwhelmed with life. Come with your wandering mind. Come messy."  "A needy heart is a praying heart. Dependency is the heartbeat of prayer."  "So instead of being paralyzed by who you are, begin with who you are. That’s how the gospel works. God begins with you. It’s a little scary because you are messed up."  Yes, "God wants us to come to him empty-handed, weary, and heavy-laden. Instinctively we want to get rid of our helplessness before we come to God."  But in fact, "strong Christians do pray more, but they pray more because they realize how weak they are."

Jesus points to children as an example.  "How do we learn to talk with our Father? By asking like a child, believing like a child, and even playing like a child."

We may not get what we want- or what we like.  But that's not the point of prayer.  We can rest easy, knowing that "If God is sovereign, then he is in control of all the details of my life. If he is loving, then he is going to be shaping the details of my life for my good. If he is all-wise, then he’s not going to do everything I want because I don’t know what I need. If he is patient, then he is going to take time to do all this. When we put all these things together—God’s sovereignty, love, wisdom, and patience—we have a divine story."  And prayer helps tune us to that story, away from trying to bend God to our will or view him as a wish-granting genie.  "You can’t walk with the Shepherd and not begin to change."

Review

There were a lot of excellent points in this book.  Miller's story-based style is fine but somewhat less structured than I prefer, making it hard for me at times to follow the overall narrative, and some of his statements, taken out of context of the entire book, can come across as 'prosperity gospel'-ish.  That irked me a bit, but read the entire thing; it is gospel-based.

Rating: A-