Book Review - A Praying Life

I hate doing book reviews. I'm not very good at them. My friend Laura would tell me that this is because I am a "details" person rather than a "big picture" person - I want to spend far too much time on the specific points, observations, and chapters in a book rather than being content to give the general idea.

That being said, this is a book review for Paul Miller's A Praying Life. The book was so good that I put aside all of my reservations and fears of writing reviews in order to tell you how good it is. I have been begging the elder's wives to do it as a book study and I am confident that I am slowly wearing them down!

A Praying Life is (obviously) about prayer. It discusses every aspect of prayer that you could think of, from how to pray to when to pray to reasons to pray to real-life stories of answers to prayer. Miller includes a wide range of ideas for prayer journals and other prayer tracking methods.

This book really dives in and looks at the question of what a life of prayer really looks like. Miller discusses how even an "average Christian" can have a praying life and offers many amazing stories of how God has answered prayer and worked through prayer in the lives of many ordinary people.

In short, this is the best book on prayer that I have ever read. Miller doesn't mess around. He speaks bluntly about the Christian's responsibility to pray. He speaks openly about the difficulty of prayer and then goes straight into a myriad of solutions. He shares story after story of how God blessed prayer in his life and in the lives of others.

This is not a book you read quickly. This is a book that you read slowly, considering every page. This is a book that you can't wait to put into action. This is a book that encourages you to press on. If I had to suggest the one Christian book that you would read in 2010, this would be it! That is how strongly I feel about A Praying Life.

Prayer is a crucial part of a believer's life that is often overlooked. I pray that each of you will read this book, be encouraged and convicted, and come out of it a strong woman of prayer. A daughter who is not afraid to go to her Father for anything. A daughter who can joyfully recount answer after answer to prayer. A daughter who is fully reliant on her Father in every area of her life.