Praying the Bible, by Donald Whitney {A Book}

If you haven’t already read this book, you need to!  It is super straightforward and simple, but it has dramatically affected my approach to prayer! And I am thankful.

Basically, the author hones in on the advantages of using the Bible as the guide for prayers.  Prayer really doesn’t have to be super complicated, you know. 

But we like to make it complicated, don’t we?  We have acrostics to remind us of different aspects of prayer; we have slips of paper with lists and charts to organize categories of prayer requests for each day of the week and/or month; and if nothing seems to really “work” for us, we scrap the suggested methods and just pray as we feel like praying. 

None of these things are wrong, but when all is said and done, we usually end with a rather sporadic prayer life.

Which is really a shame [after all, we're talking about PRAYER—the incredible privilege of direct access to the Father!] Prayer should be a major part of every believer’s life…and yet it usually isn't very high on the priority list...

That’s why Praying the Bible has been super helpful and challenging!  The book’s premise that we should use the Bible, and more specifically the Psalms, as the springboard for prayer, has given “new life” to my personal prayer life.

Anyway…that’s my plug for the book.  Go read it! 

(But don’t stop there.  Put it into practice and prepare to be encouraged and more excited about prayer!)