While it is much easier to read books about prayer than it is to actually get down to the business of praying, some books push the reader forward in her pursuit of the praying life. Kyle Strobel and John Coe have wrapped prayer in the gospel for a journey to the place Where Prayer Becomes Real.

We all begin at Romans 8, for “we do not know how to pray as we ought.” It’s hard work, but good news comes with Holy Spirit intercession and an invitation to rewrite the song of your own prayer life in the key of honesty.

What a relief to hear that prayer, far from being a performance, is instead “a place to be honest,” to enter the presence of God complete with questions, distractions, idols, and worries, leaving behind the need to “manage” and manipulate God. Prayer, then, is the place where we test our closely held beliefs about God and about the Christian life, where we unlearn the harmful and embrace the life-giving truth that God’s invitation to pray without ceasing is not a burdensome thing but a delightful entry into authentic relationship. Exercises at the end of each process facilitate this camaraderie.

As we wrestle with our struggle to be more fervent and honest in our prayer life, we find our way into conversation with the heart of God. Life becomes prayer, a daily presentation of all we are and all we have to the God who knows us and loves us well.

Many thanks to Baker Publishing and Net Galley for providing copies of these books to facilitate my reviews which are, of course, offered freely and with honesty.

The human heart can be one of the most, if not the most difficult thing to change. That is why there are many change specialists who show us different strategies to change the systemic environment that we live in. For instance, top change management specialist, Kurt Lewin popularized the change management paradigm called the "Unfreeze-Change-Refreeze" model. In simple terms, in order to make change more permanent, we need to undo the old, to inject the new, and then freeze it. Just like using super-glue. We clean the surface, apply the adhesive, and then wait for the glue to set. In the same way, if we need to change our own habits, we can learn a thing or two from such change paradigms. As the saying goes, old habits die hard. When it comes to prayer, there are many old habits that simply are hard to change. In this book about learning to pray more authentically, we learn about several habits that could become impediments to prayer. Habits like wandering minds; avoiding truth when it hurts; learning to embrace Gods expectations instead of ours; and how our prayers could be impeded by sin and pain; and others. So authors Kyle Strobel and John Coe give us tips on how to unlearn (unfreeze) our prayers. In fact, the desire to want to "pray correctly" might in itself make our prayers less real than intended. When prayers become performance, it would entail focusing on aesthetics and synthetics more than our organic self. When prayers become a place where we try to hide our vulnerability, we will not be able to present all of ourselves to God. When our prayers are filled with doubts about whether God can really answer us, we limit our faith and as a result, limit God. When we anticipate God only to be a God of good news and nice feelings, we would refrain from presenting our fears, concerns, pain, and heartaches to God. Thankfully, Strobel and Coe didn't stop there. They help us along with a way to pray honestly without ceasing. With guidance from the Lord's Prayer and many other teachings from Scripture, they show us a path forward. Their starting point for us is critical. For any prayer to be real, we need to deal with two temptations:
1) Temptation to think God expects us to be perfect first
2) Temptation to assume God is casual about our level of holiness

The first attitude tempts us to wait indefinitely until we fit our own understanding of what perfection is. This might lead to procrastination, disillusionment, depression, and worse, developing a "Pharisaic" behaviour. The second temptation is to downplay the importance of holiness and purity. This might lead us toward a careless view of God. The better position is somewhere between these two extremes. We do not need to wait until that happens before we can start praying. Pray as we go away from these extremes. That would mark the start of our journey toward how our praying becomes real. Strobel and Coe reminds us not to go it alone. Use the Psalms as our prayer guide. Desire the mind of Christ. Center our hearts and attention on Him. Watch out for attitudes and any behaviour that threatens to unhinge us from our prayer wheel. Last but not least, pray as a community to learn to pray for one another.

My Thoughts
More than fifty years ago, an American scientist by the name of Thomas Kuhn popularized the term "paradigm shift." I think this is still valid today. From time to time, we all need to be shaken out of our spiritual slumber. Our expectations of prayer can often become a barrier in themselves. Why is this book important? First, it is important because it addresses a core area of discipleship. When we respond to God's calling to follow Jesus, we need to do all we can to listen to the voice of God. Worldly temptations are everywhere. They are a potent weapon used by the evil one to silence us and to distract us from God's voice. Prayer is a relationship that God desires with the people He loves. As long as we are praying, we appear on the radar of the evil one. Just like CS Lewis's warning to us in the Screwtape Letters, the devil's objective is to prevent Christians from praying at all. The temptations of wanting to be perfect first or to be laisse-faire about God's requirements for holiness are both weapons of mass deception to be used against believers. Discipleship is about maintaining our focus on God's expectations, on God's presence, and on God Himself. Anything less than that would be a step away from our journey toward Christlikeness.

Second, the reason why many of us failed to pray is because we are not true enough to ourselves, and to God. That is the main concern by the authors. Sadly, I have heard many people who don't pray give the excuse that others are better prayer warriors than them. So they shun prayer fellowships. they think prayer is for the super spiritual. By placing others on the spiritual pedestal, not only do they excuse themselves from the calling to pray, they might stumble those who regularly pray into thinking that they are prayer champions. For leaders, pastors, and teachers, it is crucial to remind all that prayer is essentially levelling the playing field. Everyone regardless of spiritual maturity are called to pray. When we take away all forms of pretense or self-deceptions, prayer becomes a journey to honesty with God and with one another. One of the most important things about self-discovery is to learn to name the emotions we have. Learn the vocabulary of self-expression and to learn to say it before the Lord. We need to learn how to use the most accurate words to describe how we are and what we feel.

Finally, I believe this book is a powerful jolt to any bored or passive soul. By dealing with the impediments to prayer, we can give every believer a chance to pray and to do so authentically. Leaders and pastors would know that under normal circumstances, prayer meetings are often not as well attended as other social events such as potlucks, picnics, and play activities. Like the parable of the four soils, three out of four cases are failures. Applied to the spiritual life, events that are exciting at first might lose their luster and attraction after a while. Prayer is about growing roots. It is about letting the Word of God sink deep into our souls. It is about fleeing from evil that threatens to draw us further from God. When we pray with intention and honesty, we start cultivating our spirituality to become like that fruitful fourth type of soil.

If you are looking to jump start your prayer life, look no further than this book.

Rating: 4.5 stars of 5.

conrade
This book has been provided courtesy of Baker Books and NetGalley without requiring a positive review. All opinions offered above are mine unless otherwise stated or implied.

*4.5 Stars*

"For a good portion of our Christian lives prayer did not make much sense. But that wasn't our main problem, Our problem was that we weren't being honest about it."
This books leads us into honest prayer with God. Starting where you are currently, not where you think you should be. The emphasis is on being honest with God. Not trying to be who you should be but who you truly are. Bringing your true distractions, worries and anger to God, and working through that first. So that you are able to have a real relationship with God. It then leads you into praying for others and the world around us with practical strategies.

Thanks to Netgalley for digital copy of this book, in exchange for an honest review.

Prayer is a challenge for many believers, myself included. But this book caught my eye, when I read Ann Voskamp's words on her blog, "If you have ever longed for the practice of your faith to include an authentic, intimate prayer life or if you have longed for your life to become prayer, I highly recommend their words. . ." and "Kyle and John’s new book Where Prayer Becomes Real show you how to fearlessly draw near to a holy God, pray without ceasing (and without posturing), and delight in the experience of being fully known and fully loved. Each chapter ends with prayer projects or practices to help you see a difference in your prayer life, starting now."

I completely agree- this book is a marvelous tool to support your prayer life. It is challenging but so necessary. I had to read it over time so that I could process and practice the suggested tools/ideas. Ann Voskamp said she couldn't put it down.

Thankful to partner with netgalley and read a digital copy

When Prayer Becomes Real is a deeply moving and practical exploration into the common pitfalls and problems encountered in attempting to take seriously the call to a deeper prayer life. Strobe and Coe have written an engaging and challenging work that should be taken seriously and read carefully by any believer seeking to draw closer to God in prayer.

Where Prayer Becomes Real
How Honesty with God Transforms Your Soul
by Kyle Strobel; John Coe
Baker Publishing Group
Baker Books
Christian
Pub Date 02 Mar 2021


I am reviewing a copy of Where Prayer Becomes Real through Baker Books and Netgalley:







In Where Prayer Becomes Real We are Reminded that like in all journeys, we have to start where we are in our journey of prayer. We are reminded too that our prayers do not need to be like everyone else’s to be effective, in fact we need to let go of the idea that there is one way to pray for everyone and instead we need to pray from our hearts!



We are reminded too that as Christians we have been adopted into God’s life! And we are reminded that we can allow the good news shape our prayers by taking a chance that they will come true.


Where Prayer Becomes Real reminds us too that God can handle our emotions!


It is pointed out too that we need to have humility in our prayers. The importance of presenting ourselves to God is brought up too!



If you are looking for a powerful book on prayer, that is easily read and understood I recommend Where Prayer Becomes Real!


Five out of five stars!


Happy Reading!

Our journey on growing a deeper prayer life began in the spring of 2020 with a sermon given by Robby Gallaty, pastor of Long Hollow Baptist Church in Nashville, Tennessee. He challenged us to, “not be asleep in the garden,” and to pray for an hour each morning during Lent. We have consistently maintained a dedicated morning prayer time since that Lenten season, not that this is our only time of prayer, but it is definitely the most focused. Over this past year God has indeed grown our prayer life. The most recent resource He has placed in our hands is Where Prayer Becomes Real by Kyle Strobel and John Coe. It is a very practical book, providing guided practice in ways to approach our Father God with honesty and transparency, to be real with God and have authentic communication with Him. Whether you are new to prayer or a veteran looking for a fresh wind in your prayer life, this book will be a great addition to your prayer closet.

I am grateful to have received a complimentary copy of Where Prayer Becomes Real from Baker Book via NetGalley without obligation. All opinions expressed here are my own.

In Kyle Strobel and John Coe's new book, Where Prayer Becomes Real, the reader is given the gift of a new and powerful prayer life. What a gift that is. All who are called to communicate with God through prayer will be rewarded by the scripture, prayers and words in the book, while those wanting to build a better prayer life, will be challenged and encouraged throughout. Diving more deeply into a life of prayer and into conversations with God has always been a goal of mine, and this book was a welcome tool to help me reach this goal. Some of the practices that the writers share will become pillars in my prayer journey. Thank you.

1 star
This is not a good book. The theology is off. I cannot recommend it at all. I'm sorry to leave bad feedback.