Why is prayer so hard? We know we need to grow in our prayer life, but it can be such a struggle. And, too often, instead of using it as the first line of defense, we go to it as a last resort. Are you desiring a deeper prayer life…do you want to get the passion back? If you want to walk in greater victory while enjoying answered prayer on a regular basis, it’s time to engage with God on a deeper level. Discover how prayer can be one of the greatest adventures of your life.
We’ve put together several excellent recent resources on prayer with guides for practical, purposeful praying. We hope you will become a mighty force as you begin to discover specific prayer strategies for your life—and the power of prayer and the opportunity it provides for going deeper in your relationship with God.
BOOKS
Dangerous Prayer: Discovering Your Amazing Story Inside the Eternal Story of God by Cheri Fuller
What Happens When You Pray Dangerously?
“Have you ever prayed a dangerous prayer? They start when we turn our efforts over to the Lord and are ready to lay down our agenda for His will,” says author Cheri Fuller. She goes on, “I’ve observed that when the Lord wants something done, He puts a dangerous prayer in the heart of one of His people. It might be “Use me!” or “Send me!” or “Whatever it takes!” Or it could be a simple but powerful “Yes, Lord!”
Dangerous prayers are not so much “Bless me” or “Fix my situation” prayers, although nothing is wrong with those. But we’re talking about prayers the Spirit prompts you to pray that have the potential to expand God’s kingdom, influence others for good, and even bring glory to God…When God answers our dangerous prayers, He also intends to work within us. As Bill Hybels once said, “You cannot grow as a Christian until you learn to ask for brokenness. Regardless of your level of spiritual maturity, there will always be areas of your life God needs to work in.”
Pick up this book if you dare pray dangerous prayers. Join gifted speaker and award-winning author, Cheri Fuller, as she illustrates—from the Bible times to today—what happens when God’s people pray dangerous prayers. Each of the 21 chapters is rooted in Scripture and weaves together a beautiful tapestry of lives and kingdoms impacted through the power of prayer.
Fervent: A Woman’s Battle Plan for Serious, Specific, and Strategic Prayer by Priscilla Shirer
This Means WAR
“This book is not meant for pretty reading. It’s not for coffee-table curiosity and other such cameo appearances. Think of it instead as industrial-grade survival gear. Duct tape and superglue. Leather straps lashed around it. Old shoelaces maybe. In tight knots. Whatever it takes to keep it all together,” says author Priscilla Shirer. “Because this is war. The fight of your life. A very real enemy has been strategizing and scheming against you, assaulting you, coming after your emotions, your mind, your man, your child, your future. In fact, he’s doing it right this second. Right where you’re sitting. Right where you are.
But I say his reign of terror stops here. Stops now. He might keep coming, but he won’t have victory anymore.
Because it all starts failing when we start praying.
Now if you want a book about prayer, this one’s probably not for you. You can find some wonderful books on prayer by some scholarly writers, books that are well worth the time spent reading them. In fact, I highly suggest you do. Can’t really learn too much about prayer, can you? But here, in these pages, we aren’t going to merely talk about prayer or think about praying.
No.
Get ready.
To pray.”
This book was inspired by the feature film, War Room, that Priscilla Shirer’s starred. If you’re looking for a battle plan—a chance to fight back with a weapon that really works—with prayer—then this is the book for you! Each chapter exposes the enemy’s cruel, cunning intentions against you in all kinds of key areas, then coaches you in crafting your own personalized prayer strategies on included tear-out sheets—ready to post them and pray them, anywhere you can put them into active deployment. Because the truth is: Victories don’t happen by accident.
Fervent is a hands-on, knees-down, never-give-up action guide to practical, purposeful praying.
The Battle for Prayer: From Basic Training to Targeted Strategies by Stephen & Alex Kendrick
“Answered prayers aren’t merely highly unlikely coincidences. They are fingerprints of a living, loving God who invites all of us to draw close to Him, the One who made us and “is not far from each one of us; for in Him we live and move and have our being” (Acts. 17:27-28, NKJV)” says the Kendrick brothers who wrote and produced the feature film War Room.
“Our hope for this book” they continue, “is that you not only experience the joys of answered prayers more fully, but that you’ll get to know God more deeply and fellowship with Him more personally as you travel these pages. So we invite you to join us on a journey of learning how to pray more biblically and strategically. How to approach God’s throne of grace with great freedom and faith. How to more effectively fight the battles of your life in prayer first. How to cast your cares onto the shoulders of the One who deeply cares for you.”
The book is set up to read a chapter a day, the Bible each day, and pray every day. “May we each experience the amazing power of God in our generation as a testimony of His goodness for His glory!”
A sample from the book:
MY SCHEDULED PRAYER TIME
____:____a.m./p.m.
MY SCHEDULED PRAYER PLACE
_____________________________
MY PRAYER TARGETS
Develop a specific, personalized, ongoing prayer list using one or more of the following questions:
What are your top three biggest needs right now?
What are the top three things you are most stressed about?
What are three issues in your life that would take a miracle of God to resolve?
What is something good and honorable that, if God provided it, would greatly benefit you, your family, and others?
_____________________________
What is something you believe God may be leading you to do, but you need His clarity and direction on it?
What is a need from someone you love that you’d like to start praying about?
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~ By Nancy J. Nordenson
