This book from Tim Chester (one of the founders and elders of The Crowded House church community in Sheffield which I've been part of for about half my life), was the first I've finished in ages - for which I apologise if anyone avidly follows this blog (whoever you are find something else to do). I went hitchhiking round Europe for charity and didn't get as much reading done during the adventure as I thought I would. Anyway, as far as books on christian life go, this does what it says on the tin - makes a clear and compelling exhortation for us to use prayer as a more habitual part of our lives.
It does this in three sections - firstly, explaining the theology behind prayer to show us how significant and appealing it is, because God the Father loves to hear his children call upon him, Jesus the Son presents our prayers before him as he intercedes for us in grace, and the Holy Spirit works in us to reform our hearts (and thus our prayers) to please and glorify God by reflecting his will. This gives a brilliant picture of prayer as our current earthly means of making use of our relationship with the Trinity by talking to God, and given how good God is that makes it something truly special - we can literally present our daily thanks, requests, fears, concerns and repentances to the creator of the universe! What a privilege!
The third part of the book builds on this by showing us how we should approach and use prayer given what it is: with a mixture of awed reverence and a familiar closeness; God is our God and our Father. In prayer our first thoughts should be of him, and our prayers should reflect this - by knowing why we're praying for what we're praying for. A child treating God as a genie praying for a bike evidently doesn't have the rightness of approach, but a diligent churchgoer may pray something wholesome-sounding simply because they feel it's a "holier" thing to pray, and that's not quite right either. Making prayer God-centred means examining our motivations for each prayer and ensuring that we can argue those requests through to something that exults God, by faith in his promises and his Word, by glorifying him and hoping for the spread of his glory, by rejoicing in his mercy and thankfully imploring him to extend it. Any good prayer should be able to be worked into one of these moulds - Tim helpfully walks through modern applications of the Lord's Prayer (the guideline to ideal prayer given by none other than Mr Messiah Jesus) to demonstrate how we can bring forth petitions for the advance of God's kingdom and for our needs while still trustingly prioritising the glorious sovereignty of our Father.
The second part of the book tackles a much more reluctant issue: times when we don't pray. Maybe other things are more enjoyable, or seem more urgent, or we've prayed unanswered prayer too many times. Here we're shown from the arguments of the rest of the book how ludicrous such complaints are, but above just theological nudges to get our prayer life going again Tim offers a few strong practical pushes too. Chiefly among these is praying is groups (note how it's rare to look forward to a prayer meeting but even rarer to regret going to one, such is the encouragement of corporate worship in prayer) and praying over the Bible. Prayer is only one side of our relationship with God - us doing the talking, and we're much more unreliable than him, so it makes sense to not only talk but to listen, to spend time in his Word meditating over the gospel truth and how it speaks into every aspect of our lives. If we feel far from God, it's not because he's holding us at arms' length - it's because we've broken off the conversation with our heavenly Father. Bible reading and prayer as regular intertwined activities are essential to a healthy relationship with God.
So as always with Tim's books, this is extremely easy to read, rigorously grounded in biblical truth, with theology made accessible by examples applying it to normal life. Definitely worth a read if you're keen to know the glory of God more in your prayers. However if you're considering reading this as a kick-up-the-backside to spurt you into praying more (I was), don't bother - read the Bible instead and just pray; have the confidence that God is good and glorious and true and just pray. For rejuvenating our appreciation of our heavenly citizenship, no book can possible be a substitute for God's word itself, hearing it, thinking on it, and responding to it in worshipful prayer.
