Books to Encourage and Embolden Your Prayers

Do you want to enliven your prayers? Pray bold prayers? And pray in ways that draw you near to God and leave you encouraged by his care?

Here are five books to help you do all that and more. Below, I list them in order of the amount of biblical material they cover, from one verse to the entire Bible. So check them out. You’ll be glad you did.

One Verse

Fearless Prayer: Why We Don’t Ask and Why We Should

Craig Hazen

Audience: Christian. Reading Level: High school.

This delightful book covers just one verse: “If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you” (John 15:7). In it, Dr. Craig Hazen looks at what this verse means in its context as well as at the ditches people can fall into when interpreting this verse. Additionally, he compassionately addresses hindrances to prayer, including doubt whether God exists. For that question, he provides evidence for the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Above all, Hazen encourages boldness in prayer and trust in a good and loving God who delights to bless those who abide in Jesus.

Hazen’s style is clear, easy to understand, and thoughtful. Plus, the book is short and easy to read. It’s also hardbound and suitable for gift-giving. I highly recommend it.

Excerpt from pages 97-98:

Did Jesus really mean what he packed into that last clause? Are there other factors we’re not taking into account? Are we understanding this correctly? This sounds too good to be true and it doesn’t seem to match up with our experience. We have seen this abused by “faith” teachers. We don’t want to build false hope in people. We don’t want to look materialistic. We want to be realistic with our faith. We don’t want to sound weird. We don’t want to sound greedy. We want to make sure people don’t have a bad view of Jesus.

Jesus’s Prayers

The Complete Guide to the Prayers of Jesus: What Jesus Prayed and How It Can Change Your Life Today

Janet Holm McHenry

Audience: Christian women. Reading Level: High school.

This sweet book interweaves the author’s fascinating personal stories with examples of how she incorporates Jesus’s prayers into her own life. Former schoolteacher Janet Holm McHenry is a gifted storyteller whose tales draw you in and show by example how an everyday woman can pray Jesus’s prayers.

In this easy-to-read book, McHenry examines how Jesus prayed when facing temptation, when in trouble, and when needing to make decisions. She looks at his prayers of praise and thanksgiving, as well as his prayer for daily needs. She also studies his prayers for himself and for others. Additionally, each chapter ends with an adapted prayer and discussion questions, making it perfect for both personal reading and small groups.

Excerpt from pages 81-82:

Notice how Jesus prays: “Father, glorify your name!” Our lives are meant to glorify God. In the good times, our lives—the way we react, our words, our actions, our attitudes—should bring honor to his name. The same is true of the harder times, too. The day before my dad died of complications relating to amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (Lou Gehrig’s disease), he was having fun teasing his nurses. Dad was simply living out the last moments of his life as a Christian man would. Yes, it’s very nice to see a Christian living the high life with every hair and accessory in place, but it’s even more compelling when a suffering, dying Christian breathes life, love, and laughter into others until the very end. Jesus pointed the way to the Father. His prayer wasn’t Save me from this hour but Glorify your name!

Paul’s Prayers

Praying with Paul: A Call to Spiritual Reformation

D. A. Carson

Audience: Thoughtful, detail-loving Christians. Reading Level: College.

This outstanding book examines the theology behind Paul’s prayers and encourages spiritual reformation based on praying those prayers. It’s by one of my favorite authors, D. A. Carson, and it does not disappoint. Indeed, it plunges into spiritual and theological depths, exposes human motivations, and glorifies the all-powerful God. Additionally, chapters end in reflection questions that encourage life change.

Now, Carson is a compatibilist (he holds that determinism and free will can co-exist). While I am not, his arguments there are brief, interesting, and do not detract from the rest of the book. In conclusion, this is a book to read more than once.

Excerpt from page 121:

Here then is a practical test of whether the excellence I pursue is really for the glory and praise of God or for my own self-image. If the things I value are taken away, is my joy in the Lord undiminished? Or am I so tied to my dreams that the destruction of my dreams means I am destroyed as well?

Psalms

Answering God: The Psalms As Tools For Prayer

Eugene H. Peterson

Audience: Thoughtful Christians. Reading Level: College.

Psalms is a book of prayers, yet many Christians know neither that nor how to pray them. This delightful book explains both.

In The Message, Dr. Eugene Peterson translated the Psalms into raw, gritty language to capture the feeling of Hebrew poetry so that Christians could relate to them today. Here he shows how to pray the psalms and experience the blessings that praying them brings. In fact, this little book is filled with gems like this on Psalm 5’s morning prayer: “And so we enter the day having conducted a reconnaissance of evil and examined our own hearts for illusions of innocence” (66). In sum, this is a terrific book.

Excerpt from page 100:

It is easy to be honest before God with our hallelujahs; it is somewhat more difficult to be honest in our hurts; it is nearly impossible to be honest before God in the dark emotions of our hate. So we commonly suppress our negative emotions (unless, neurotically, we advertise them). Or, when we do express them, we do it far from the presence, or what we think is the presence, of God, ashamed or embarrassed to be seen in these curse-stained bib overalls. But when we pray the psalms, these classic prayers of God’s people, we find that will not do. We must pray who we actually are, not who we think we should be. In prayer, all is not sweetness and light.

Entire Bible

Prayer: Experiencing Awe and Intimacy with God

Timothy Keller

Audience: Thoughtful, detail-loving Christian. Reading Level: College.

In this insightful book, Dr. Keller examines not only what the Old and New Testaments teach about prayer, but also how godly Christians throughout the ages have prayed. This book examines prayer thoughtfully and is jam-packed with insights and practical advice. Keller does not recommend any one prayer style, but instead offers many approaches with which readers can experiment.

Keller divides his book into five parts:

1. Desiring Prayer
2. Understanding Prayer
3. Learning Prayer
4. Deepening Prayer
5. Doing Prayer

Excerpt from page 105:

To pray in Jesus’ name means to come to God in prayer consciously trusting in Christ for our salvation and acceptance and not relying on our own credibility or record. It is, essentially, to reground our relationship with God in the saving work of Jesus over and over again. It also means to recognize your status as a child of God, regardless of your inner state. God our Father is committed to his children’s good, as any good father would be.