5 Books On Prayer I Point People Towards First

Last Sunday as part of Brookside Church's "Heard" series, co-lead pastor Jeff Dart tackled the question, "Why Pray?"  His short answer was this: We pray because of who God is, who we are, and the relationship that prayer invites us into.  (To access the full sermon, click here and find the sermon preached on December 7, 2014).

In other words?  Prayer is important.  It's the communication that helps cultivate a full-orbed relationship with a Christian's heavenly Father.  But prayer can also be difficult.  After all, for some (many?), a rich prayer life doesn't come naturally.  Therefore, prayer must be learned.

For those wanting to learn to pray, the best place to start is by actually praying -don't wait till you feel like you're an expert before you take initial steps of application.  (Nothing works that way, right?)  Read the Psalms (kind of like a prayer book to God, in lots of ways), and spend lots of time reading and reflecting on Jesus' teaching on prayer in Matthew 6:5-13.

But there are also lots of great resources that can help you learn to pray.  When people ask me for recommendations on prayer, here are the five books I point them towards first:

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D.A. Carson, A Call to Spiritual Reformation: Priorities from the Prayers of Paul.  Baker Academic, 1992.

In this book, Carson uses a handful of prayers from the Apostle Paul in the New Testament to guide how we think about prayer today.  You'll get your money's worth in the first introductory chapter (which is excellent), and then the rest of the book is gravy (in other words, also excellent).  The only qualifier I add when recommending this book is that it can use some big words and be a bit more technical.  But it's well worth the heavy lifting.  Get this book.

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Paul E. Miller, A Praying Life: Connecting with God in a Distracting World. NavPress, 2009.

Prayer isn't a discipline that we "turn on" for 15-20 min a day, and then "turn off" as we go about the rest of our day.  Prayer is communication that facilities a relationship with our Heavenly Father - communication that is ongoing throughout the day.  I love the healthy balance of strong theology, practical approach, and devotional thrust that finds its way into this book.

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Bill Hybels, Too Busy Not to Pray, 3rd ed.  Zondervan, 2009.

The strength of this book is in its practicality.  Prayer isn't a theory to be studied in the abstract; it's a discipline to be concretely practiced.  This book is real, honest, and practically helpful.  

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Valley of Vision: A Collection of Puritan Prayers

I'm of the opinion that a great way to learn prayer is by standing on the shoulders of the right people - learning from them, and even praying their prayers and making them our own.  This book is simply a collection of prayers prayed by the Puritans - a group of people who cared deeply about their relationship with God and cultivating deep communion with Him.  When my prayer life is struggling, this is one of the first books I turn to help me through to the other side.

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Timothy Keller, Prayer: Experiencing Awe and Intimacy with God. Dutton, 2014.

My disclaimer is that I've not (yet) read this book as of this writing.  But I read as much of Tim Keller as I can, and I have yet to be led astray.  I'm excited to pick up this book in the next few weeks and benefit from it as much as I've heard others have.

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What are the most helpful lessons you've learned on prayer?  Any especially helpful books or resources on this topic?