"Where Prayer Becomes Real" (Kyle Strobel and John Coe)

TITLE: Where Prayer Becomes Real
AUTHOR: Kyle Strobel and John Coe
PUBLISHER: Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 2021, (224 pages).

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

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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.