Prayer
Does It Make Any Difference?
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4.7 • 20 Ratings
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- $12.99
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- $12.99
Publisher Description
Philip Yancey probes the very heartbeat of our relationship with God: prayer. What is prayer? Does it change God's mind or ours or both? This book is an invitation to communicate with God the Father who invites us into an eternal partnership through prayer.
Polls reveal that 90 percent of people pray. Yet prayer, which should be the most nourishing and uplifting time of the believer's day, can also be frustrating, confusing, and fraught with mystery.
Writing as a fellow pilgrim, bestselling author of What's So Amazing About Grace? Philip Yancey probes such questions as:
Is God listening?What should I pray for?If God knows everything, what's the point of prayer?If my prayers go unanswered, is there something wrong with my faith?Why does God sometimes seem close and sometimes seem far away?How can I make prayer more satisfying?
In this powerful classic of spiritual insight and investigation, Yancey tackles the tough questions about the mystery of prayer and, in the process, comes up with a fresh new approach to this timeless topic.
"I have learned to pray as a privilege, not a duty," writes Yancey, and he invites you to join him on this all-important journey.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Yancey strikes a moving chord with this book that is more full of yearning and wonder than it is of easy answers. Prayer, he writes, is our partnership with God, our chance to join forces with God's power to confront suffering and evil head-on. Yancey is candid about his nagging sense of failure in prayer, but the book is suffused with a cautious hope; he writes of his growing confidence and joy as his prayer life has deepened from a spiritualized to-do list to a conversational communion with God. The key, Yancey writes, is that prayer is a window into knowing the mind of God, whose kingdom is entrusted to all of us frail, selfish people on earth. As with his other books, Yancey draws upon his international travels to bring a fresh perspective to the topic, detailing, in nations such as Romania and South Africa, how he believes prayer has transformed hearts and permitted bloodless change. The book's strength lies in its balance, with Yancey holding equally important ideals in a beautiful tension: action and meditation, doubt and certainty, and the unchanging God with the God who appears so moved by people's petitions in the Bible that he changes his mind. Yancey also offers some startling and insightful observations about Jesus' own prayer life.
Customer Reviews
Enjoyable, But There Are Better Books On This Topic
This is Yancey's latest release (2006) and the eighth Yancey book I have read (all since moving to China in 2003). I actually got to meet Mr. Yancey several years ago when he visited two of my friends while touring the school I work at. I have always enjoyed Yancey's writing style, but I wasn't initially as excited to read this book as I have been with some of his other pieces (such as The Jesus I Never Knew and What's So Amazing About Grace?). Like other books I have read of his though, I benefited from digesting his words. Although Yancey actually considers Prayer to be his strongest book yet, I would greatly disagree. I am strongly challenged by Yancey's view of a God who we can convince to change His mind. In Prayer, Yancey does explore some great questions such as: What's the point of prayer? How can I make prayer more satisfying? Does it work the way we think it should? Of course not all of my questions about prayer have been answered, but I have received some practical advice and read some amazing stories about the power of prayer. I am thankful that we can communicate with our Father, and I look forward to the day when I can converse with God in that perfect place that He prepares for us.