What a beautiful little book. This book is an enchanting introduction to prayer, written beautifully.

At first, I felt like it would be a weird practice to read a book about prayer. Why not...just pray? But then, as I considered how vacuous and empty my prayer life could be sometimes, I realized why it is a bit more important to read books like this. Thankfully, Starke's wonderful reflections on prayer helped me have a far more robust and rotund prayer life..

Rather than giving us a checklist of things to pray for, or tips and tricks on how to pray better, Starke introduces us to a bigger and fuller picture of what prayer truly is and can be. Simply, he gives us a bigger picture of God, and gives us a bigger picture of the way that he welcomes us into conversation with him. By giving us a bigger and more verbose picture of what prayer truly is, I think a lot of readers will find themselves turning to prayer more often and more vociferously.

that being said, it's not as if Starke completely forgoes the use of tips and tricks. He does offer some things that he has done that have revolutionized his prayer life. Now, he doesn't do this prescriptively: you won't walk away feeling inadequate or with a twelve-step plan to fix your prayer life, but if you truly don't know where to start, Pastor Starke gives us a big, transformative view of prayer and some practices that can start to ingratiate our lives into one of prayer.

The Possibility of Prayer
Finding Stillness with God in a Restless World
by John Starke


InterVarsity Press

InterVarsity Press


IVP Books
Christian
Pub Date 11 Feb 2020


I am reviewing a copy of of The Possibility of Prayer through InterVarsity Press and Netgalley:


Has their ever been a time where the business of life, affects your prayer life? An then there are those times we choose to be busy, because when we are busy we tend to not think about what is causing us stress as much, and instead focus on the tasks set before us. But The Possibility of Prayer reminds us that prayer is not only for the spiritually elite, but in fact it is for everyone, and that includes you.



John Starke tells us that Prayer is either Prayer is either the greatest insanity or the most wonderful news. Prayer is calling on God for his attention. I choose to believe that prayer is the most wonderful news. He then goes on to tell us that our faith is a mystery because God is in us, beyond us and with us all at the same time.


The Possibility of prayer reminds us that prayer is the place we go to be healed, and to experience love freely and fully. In prayer we experience God’s divine welcome and joy. We experience being known and seen. God is fully present and invites us to be fully present with him.


I give The Possibility of Prayer five out of five stars and would recommend it to anyone who wants to deepen their prayer life!


Happy Reading!

If you've ever wanted practical how-to advice on how to mature spiritually, this book is it. I felt like the author was giving away hard-earned secrets. I especially appreciated how he used teachings from the psalms to drive home his points. The psalm writers are the original spiritual habit teachers!

This isn't a 24-hour fix because spiritual growth doesn't work like that. But heed the advice in these pages and you'll emerge more Christlike over time.