Talking About Prayer

by    1st August 2010    0 responses

talkingprayer

Richard Bewes knows the limitations of a book on prayer, as he makes clear in the introduction to this book:

Prayer.  I would never have chosen to write a book on the prayer life.  What a subject – and how hypocritical one feels in making the attempt!  This cannot be an exhaustive treatise; the very idea that anyone could cover the whole field of prayer in a kind of technical manual is ridiculous.

Prayer is probably one of the areas of the Christian life that Christians find most difficult, and there are plenty of self-help guides to a more fruitful prayer life out there.  These books naturally have their place, but this is not one of them.  Richard Bewes does not give a drill-down list of things we should be praying for, and he does not suggest that his readers’ prayer lives must be deficient.  Instead, he uses the Bible to explain what prayer is all about, and uses his ministry experience to suggest ways to make prayer a lively part of Christian life.

Bewes’ style is very anecdotal and illustrative, the the extent that some readers might find this book frustrating to read.  Doubtless the book could be half the length, but I think the impressive number of illustrations demonstrate Bewes’ pastoral experience and sensitivity.  He tells stories about the prayer practices of church leaders he has been inspired by.  He uses historical figures and events as illustrations.  He draws comparisons between biblical principles and children’s toys!  I get the sense that Bewes is constantly learning and growing in his faith as he engages with the Bible and the world around him.

I think the great charm of this book, then, is that it does not preach prayer in a vacuum.  Richard Bewes feels like an older, wiser, pilgrim giving good guidance as to a life of prayer.  Several times, reading this book, I realised that Bewes had just explained something in a way that I had never really grasped before.  I found the chapter on meditation particularly helpful – to me, talk of meditative prayer seemed like jargon.  The idea didn’t really make much sense to me, and I did not know what to make of people who spoke about it.  Bewes explained meditation as the act of preparing a sermon for your own consumption.  As I read more of the chapter, I realised that I had been meditating for quite some time, but I had not been using the times quite as well as I might!

If you want a book which tells you how to pray, this is not the book for you.  But if you want a book which guides you through some key Bible passages suggesting advice and wisdom on how to change your prayer habits, I strongly recommend Talking about Prayer.

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Ali grew up in London, but is currently at university in the North East of England. He helped to re-launch Crossring in 2009, and has acted as Managing Editor of the website since then. He occasionally dabbles in photography and web development - he also designed and maintains the Crossring website.

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