The Best of WTOnline

Reader Poll

What part of your life is most difficult to surrender to God? My finances My future My past My family My physical body My feeling of control View Results

 

BookMark Review Club

Prayer Resources

Principles of Prayer

by Charles G. Finney
©1980 Louis Gifford Parkhurst, Jr.

According to Louis Parkhurst, Jr., Charles Finney’s principles of prayer have long lain buried in his massive tome Lectures on Revivals of Religion, which few have dared to navigate in its entirety. Therefore, Parkhurst has excerpted Finney’s principles and condensed them into 40 short meditations. Though the entire book can be read easily in one sitting, the reader is encouraged to read one entry per day, taking time to meditate, reflect and prayerfully seek to implement the principles in their daily life. Parkhurst has written short prayers at the end of each meditation, which reflect the truth he believes was imparted to him personally.

Basic subjects are addressed such as praying in accordance with God’s will, praying specifically rather than generally, praying in faith, and praying with the proper motives. In addition, Finney stretches the reader with subjects such as praying for prophetic declarations—as when Daniel prayed in earnest after studying the Scriptures and learning that the captivity of the Jews was to come to an end. Biblical prophecies are yet to be fulfilled, and Finney encourages the reader to make these things the basis of believing prayer.

Pentecostals will appreciate that an entire section is devoted to being filled with the Spirit if we hope to have an effective prayer life. One meditation outlines several things that might prevent a person from being filled, while two subsequent meditations describe the results of being filled. Be forewarned, though—these results are practical rather than experiential, and no mention is made of speaking in tongues. For example, Finney posits that if you have the Spirit of God, you must expect to feel great distress at the condition of the Church and of the world. He says the more you have of the Spirit, the more deeply you will be distressed about sinners as well.

Prayer – Does It Make Any Difference?

by Philip Yancey

Philip Yancey is considered one of the most significant Christian thinkers of our generation, and his books make the reader think. This treatise on prayer is divided into five parts, each of which includes several chapters.

Yancey is thorough not only in the aspects of prayer that a plethora of books on the subject addresses; but he tackles the hard issues—the aspects of prayer that nobody really wants to think about. In addition to the question posed in the book’s title, Yancey grapples with unanswered prayer, and why some people are healed in response to prayer and others are not—why some women have healthy children in response to prayer, and others have children with Down syndrome.

We are all familiar with the Lord’s Prayer, but Yancey discusses in length other significant prayers of the Bible: Abraham’s plea for Sodom; Jehoshaphat’s prayer for victory; Ezra’s intercession for the sins of his people; Daniel’s prayer for the salvation of Jerusalem; and Jesus’ prayer for His disciples. Studying prayers like these, Yancey suggests, helps the pray-er “learn the wisdom of reviewing the big picture, of placing my own small story in the context of God’s story.”

Sprinkled throughout the book are various writers’ personal accounts of some aspect of prayer, as well as quotes from notable pray-ers such as George Müller, Susannah Wesley and Martin Luther.

Prayer is a discipline we cannot afford to neglect. To quote author Henri Nouwen, “We cannot plan, organize or manipulate God; but without a careful discipline, we cannot receive Him either.”

The Believer’s Secret of Intercession

by Andrew Murray and C.H. Spurgeon
©1988 Louis Gifford Parkhurst, Jr.

This is the third book in a series where Louis Parkhurst combined Andrew Murray’s “secret” booklets with the writings of other well-known preachers—in this case combining Murray’s The Secret of Intercession with excerpts from six of Charles Spurgeon’s sermons on intercessory prayer.

The Believer’s Secret of Intercession is in an easy-to-read devotional format featuring 31 entries, each complete with a meditative prayer at the end. The opening devotion sets the tone for the rest of the book, stating that intercession is the holiest exercise of boldness for a child of God—and one that has been practiced by “all the best of God’s saints.” Encouraging examples are given from the lives of Jesus, Moses, Abraham, Elisha, Peter, Jeremiah, Isaiah, Paul and Elijah.

The chapter “The Intercessors God Seeks” provides one of the best illustrations of an intercessor, based on Isaiah 62:6,7: “The great mark of the intercessor is that he is not to hold his peace day or night, to take no rest, and to give God no rest, until the deliverance comes.” The authors call intercessors the “sentries of the night watches,” explaining that God has determined that a guard of prayer be set up around His Church day and night.

Practical helps are given on how to intercede for pastors, missionaries, our families, the Church, and the unsaved.

If You Will Ask

by Oswald Chambers
©1958 by Oswald Chambers Publications Association Limited

Over the years I have read many works by Oswald Chambers, and one thing has become obvious: he was a man of prayer. When I discovered a few years ago that he had written a book entirely about prayer, I couldn’t wait to read it. I was not disappointed.

I love Chambers because he consistently makes me re-think my paradigms. Something on the very first page drew me in: “Some say that a man will suffer in his life if he does not pray. I question it. Prayer is an interruption of personal ambition, and no person who is busy has time to pray. What will suffer is the life of God in him, which is nourished not by food but by prayer.” Prayer, he says, should not be viewed as a method of self-development—the biblical purpose of prayer is that God’s holiness, purpose and order may be brought about. If we always get from God everything we ask, we may view Him as some sort of blessing machine—and never get to know Him.

Chambers expounds on the difference between God’s order and His permissive will, asserting that we are born into God’s permissive will, and have to get at His order through the discipline of prayer.

Using the example of when Lazarus died because Jesus tarried in coming to his sickbed, Chambers discusses what a believer’s response should be when a definitive answer to prayer is not forthcoming. He suggests that, in the case of Mary and Martha, Jesus loved them so much that He stayed where He was because He knew they could handle a much bigger revelation—Lazarus’s resurrection from the dead. More than just receiving their brother back, Mary and Martha got infinitely more—they were eyewitnesses of the marvelous truth that Jesus is the Resurrection and the Life.

I love how Chambers interprets Paul’s insight that we wrestle not against flesh and blood: “Wrestling is not fighting; it is confronting the antagonist on our own ground and maintaining a steady, all-embracing ‘stand’ and ‘withstand.’” He urges the reader to not succumb to physical circumstances (e.g. lack of sleep, sickness, schedule)—to never allow any of these things to be your reason for not prevailing in prayer.

PATTY KENNEDY is assistant web content editor for the national Women’s Ministries Department. She also writes book and music reviews for Pages and Tunes, a free e-newsletter provided by the national Women’s Ministries Department.

Subscribe to Pages and Tunes for free