I’m reading this one now, so this review grows chapter by chapter. These are the passages from the first two chapters that stayed with me.
"Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God. And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus."
Philippians 4:6–7
Chapters 1 and 2
When I began praying in earnest, I discovered the same thing. It boils down to this: if you are willing to invite God to involve himself in your daily challenges, you will experience his prevailing power-in your home, in your relationships, in the marketplace, in the schools, in the church, wherever it is most needed.
Growing up in a corporate culture of prayer, I found that some things become systematized, and prayer is one of them. There is a “how” to pray, and sometimes even the exact words to pray. This is good, because even Jesus’s disciples said, “Rabbi, teach us to pray,” and Jesus gave them the exact words. So using templates and exact words is great. But even Jesus prayed from His heart. In the Garden of Gethsemane, He said, “Nevertheless not my will, but thine, be done.” When He raised Lazarus, Jesus prayed as though He were talking to God directly. Anyway, I like how the book covers every area of life. There may be an area not commonly mentioned in church prayers, but it’s not outside God’s purview.
It is amazing how many coincidences occur when one begins to pray.
Pastors always say, “Let’s pray and not worry ourselves with the how.” Sometimes I think my prayers are not open-minded enough, and this is a reminder that coincidences are a “how” too.
Prayerless people cut themselves off from God’s prevailing power, and the frequent result is a familiar feeling of being overwhelmed, overrun, beating down, pushed around, defeated surprising numbers of people are willing to settle for lives like that don’t be one of them. Nobody has to live like that.
This one was hard to read. When does prayer turn into an abdication of responsibility, and when does prayerlessness quietly turn into self-reliance? Either way, just as God cast a vision for Abraham, telling him his descendants would reach as far as his eyes could see, God’s chosen people will always need help: dependence on God, and areas of weakness that allow God to come in.
We humans are like the widow. Impoverished, powerless, with no connections and no status, we are unable to handle our problems alone and feel that we have nowhere to turn.
I love the comparison.
And I’m coming to understand that it gives God great joy to bestow resources and power on his children.
The Bible teaches that we serve a God who is simply looking for opportunities to pour out his blessings on us
The Bible talks about casting down imaginations that exalt themselves against the knowledge of God. It’s a journey to know the truth about God, and this is a good reminder. God is good.
Overview
There is more in these chapters than the passages above. The book also covers why people pray: for peace, for intimacy with God, and more. It talks about how we don’t have to go begging in prayer like the widow, because God is not the unrighteous judge. “Jesus taught us to call God Father.” And much more.
You know, I am starting to connect with the book’s title. Daniel was a very busy man, an administrator over several regions, and he prayed three times a day. Maybe he actually needed to pray three times a day. He was too busy not to pray.