A Journey to Victorious Praying by Bill Thrasher

A Journey to Victorious Praying by Bill Thrasher ISBN-13: 9780802415639 Paperback: 256 pages Publisher: Moody Publishers Released: June 6th 2017

Source: review copy from the publisher through NetGalley.

Book Description, Modified from Goodreads:
It’s something many Christians can relate to: the desire to pray but the failure to execute. A Journey to Victorious Praying will tell readers why this is—and how to move past it. Addressing common misconceptions about prayer, then offering biblical truths and practices instead, Bill Thrasher teaches readers how to honestly share their desires with God, turn temptations into victorious prayers, experience the Spirit’s motivation in prayer, get help when they don’t know how to pray, implement fasting into their prayer life, move from anxiety to peace, and more.

Filled with practical insight and pastoral warmth, this book will give readers renewed enthusiasm for embarking on the essential journey of prayer. And its brief chapters, organized around various themes, make it perfect for quick reference, as does the appendix with tips for stimulating prayer.


My Review:
A Journey to Victorious Praying talked about various aspects of praying. Each chapter was about 4-8 pages long, and there were 30 chapters. This book would work well as a daily devotional as each chapter leaves you with something to think about throughout the day. The author talked about things like praying Scripture, gaining strength through prayer, the benefits of fasting and how to do it, and transforming your anxiety into peace. The author was easy to understand, his points were biblically-based, and his tone was encouraging. Each chapter left me wanting to pray rather than feeling that prayer was too difficult to get right. He also told stories about praying people in the past and present to help illustrate a point or encourage the reader. At the end of the book, there were journal writing prompts, some verse references for prayers from the Bible on various topics, and ideas to stimulate prayer. Overall, I'd highly recommend this encouraging and useful book.

"What is prayer? O. Hallesby, one of Norway's leading Christian teachers, said that prayer is an attitude of our hearts towards God. It is an attitude of helplessness. This attitude of helplessness is not meant to drive you to anxiety but rather to drive you to God. In other words, prayer is helplessness plus faith. We may stumble over this until we realize that faith is simply coming to Christ with our helplessness. When we petition God in prayer, we come to Christ and tell him what we and those for whom we pray are lacking. It is opening up our needy lives to him." From page 25.


If you've read this book, what do you think about it? I'd be honored if you wrote your own opinion of the book in the comments.


Excerpt: Read an excerpt using Google Preview.