Words of Worth

Praying Backwards

September 14, 2013

imagePrayer.

Just typing that word, I felt some hesitation. What if I blog on prayer and someone who is a “real” prayer warrior reads this post and sees I’m not doing it “right”?

If you google the word “prayer” you get 277,000,000 hits in 0.2 seconds. Currently, Amazon has 87, 833 books for sale on the subject of prayer.

What people say, think and believe about prayer runs the gamut from:

“Prayer is a holy occupation.” – Oswald Chambers (Sounds like a job!)

“Prayer can be frustrating, confusing, and fraught with mystery.” – Philip Yancey
(Sounds honest!)

“Prayer is a moment of incarnation – God with us. God involved in the details of my life.” – Paul E. Miller (Sounds personal!)

“Help is a prayer that is always answered. Churches are good for prayer, but so are garages and cars and mountains and showers and dance floors.” – Anne Lamott (Sounds doable and a little scary. Can I really pray on a dance floor?)

So, who’s right here? Is prayer a job I must do, a confusing riddle to solve, a moment of incarnation or should I just keep on dancing?

Well… I don’t know. But I keep reading the Bible and searching for answers. I keep praying. And I’m always on the lookout for helpful books on prayer. That brings us to our next book recommendation: Praying Backwards by Bryan Chapell. I downloaded Praying Backwards to my e-reader when it was an oh so affordable 1.99. No fear, the price is still quite a deal at only $3.99. However, after reading a couple of chapters, I knew I had to have a copy to hold and underline and mark and read and make notes all in the margins. It’s easy to read, extremely practical and the prayers at the end of each chapter have motivated some changes in the way I pray.

Here’s a review from Jerry Bridges (author, speaker, Navigators representative) on Praying Backwards: “Christians are often perplexed and discouraged by the seemingly few answers to prayer they receive. With careful exposition and Scripture and helpful applications to daily life, Bryan Chapell tackles this issue head-on with a book that should encourage all of us to “pray and not give up” (Luke 18:1)”

If you need to jumpstart your prayer life or if you feel you need to have a fresh perspective on prayer, would you join us for the rest of September and October as we pray backwards? Don’t know what that means? Get the book, meet us back here weekly and find out! (ct)