You Can Pray

I loved the phrase "Prayer, is a child asking her Father for help". Of course there is more to it than that, but that's not a bad place to start. It's so easy to get caught up on guilt about not praying, or not praying well enough or fervently enough. And such guilt often causes us to give up on prayer, or alternatively into an unhelpfully driven approach.

This is an easy to read, but very biblical book. I've found it so helpful and warmly recommend it.

All Christians are supposed to be able to pray but there can be few who do not find it difficult. Tim Chester's book is a goldmine of positive encouragement to everyone who gets distracted when they pray, find motivation difficult or just don't know how or what to pray. If you find prayer difficult then this book is for you.

Chester suggests that the secret of successful and satisfying prayer is to know that God the Father loves to hear us pray, that God the Son makes every prayer pleasing to God, and that God the Holy spirit helps us to pray. It is not something we must perfect or achieve but something, however wavering, to offer to God in trust.

The book is in three parts: Why prayer is easy (How we pray) - with references to Luke's Gospel; Why prayer is difficult (Why we pray) - with references to Lamentations; and What we pray (The arguments and priorities of prayer) - with references to the Lord's Prayer. All in all this is a most helpful and valuable book on the subject. It should be on every church library shelf and could be a useful study guide for church groups.