Book Review : A Praying Life

This has been a wonderful season for me in reading the Bible consistently and vigorously. The Gospel has spoken deep to my heart with new richness, and my intimidation with the Old Testament is slowly being replaced with interest and wonder. The thing that has haunted me, though, is reading passages like Matthew 7:21-23 and Matthew 25:31-46, where Christ is judging man according to what they have done, how they lived their life. In these passages, it seems that a key characteristic of those who have a real faith in Christ is that Christ says he knows them. There is a relationship there. I looked at my current relationship with God, and it honestly seemed disconnected from what Christ was talking about. I talk to God occasionally, but most of my time "dedicated" to Him is in the morning or on my drive to work, and is spent reading, learning and thinking about Him and very little prayer. I began to realize I didn't really know how to pray, nor was I sure if I really believed that prayer was anything more than "talking to air."

That's why, when Kevin DeYoung listed A Praying Life by Paul E. Miller as his #1 book of 2009, I immediately used my Christmas gift money to buy it on Amazon. Two weeks later, I would have to say this has been one of the most helpful and encouraging books I've ever read, in both prayer and parenting... more on that later.

One of the book's strengths is that Miller has written to a broad audience with broad struggles, brilliantly weaving and connecting his personal journey throughout the book. I'm sure that because he's conducted conferences about prayer for many years, he has heard the most common objections and struggles that lead people to a shallow prayer life. With great clarity, in A Praying Life, Miller acknowledges the negative extremes that people move toward and then humbly points the reader back toward the Good Shepherd. For the one who is influenced by mysticism he teaches the reader to watch the story God is weaving with hope, that you don't miss his beautiful work, and to seek God, not an experience. To the person who struggles with asking anything of an all-knowing, all-powerful God, he points to the child-like faith Christ talked about. He dedicates a significant portion of the book to "following Jesus out of cynicism."

I truly enjoyed this book, and I think the main reason for this is Miller's personal stories involving his daughter with severe autism, and all that God has showed him over the twenty-plus years of raising her and four other children. As I have found raising my own three-year-old son to be the most humbling responsibility I've ever taken on, I was heartened by Miller's teaching and enabled to see the role God is playing through these struggles.

Not only do I plan to read this book again and again, but this is a book I would recommend to any person who wants to pray better... in other words, it should be a must-read for every Christian.