"7 Ways to Pray" (Amy Boucher Pye)

TITLE: 7 Ways to Pray: Time-Tested Practices for Encountering God
AUTHOR: Amy Boucher Pye
PUBLISHER: Colorado Springs, CO: Tyndale House Publishers, 2021, (192 pages)

Christianity is a relationship. Like any relationship, it needs regular communication. Prayer is that spiritual conversation that reflects the ongoing relationship between God and us. For most people, praying is simply asking for things when one is in need or seeking help when one is in trouble. Such a strategy comes from a Santa Claus theology of prayer, turning prayer into some kind of a spiritual invocation for a physical requisition. What if we move away from such a conventional manner of praying? What if we do less of asking for things and more of desiring God? If God is All-Knowing, surely He already knows all that we need. That being the case, our prayer life should orientate in a different way. Author Amy Boucher Pye offers us seven ways to pray. Using the wisdom of the spiritual masters of old, Pye leads us along seven paths of prayer. They are:

1. Letting Scripture Guide our Praying
2. Using the Lectio Divina
3. Practicing the Presence of God
4. Listening
5. Lamenting
6. Imagining
7. Remembering

We learn the specifics of each type of prayer. All of them center around the Word of God that we can read, chat with, imbibe, imagine, practice spiritual conversations, and many other practical ways. These ways are baked with spiritual wisdom from the past. We learn to read the Word with an attitude of prayer. By personalizing the words in the Bible, we paraphrase the meaning into our own lives. We learn to appreciate slow reading as taught by Bernard of Clairvaux and Madame Guyon. We learn about the four phases of Lectio Divina, and practice it with both groups and self. From Brother Lawrence, we learn from the classic work, "Practicing the Presence of God." We learn to hear from God and practice discernment with tips from Teresa of Avila and, Oswald Chambers, with several biblical examples too. On lamenting, We learn from Jeremiah, Job, and the Psalms. The chapter on Imagination has tips from Ignatius's Prayer of Examen and how we can let Scripture walk with us in our ups and downs of life. Let ourselves enter into God's story. Finally, the last type of prayer is a moment of reflecting and remembering events of the past, and how to turn that into prayer.

My Thoughts

Prayer is the fundamental practice of the Christian life. Many Christians believe that. When it comes to consistent praying, the numbers drop. In fact, it is probably true that apart from prayer before meals, most believers pray only when there is some pressing personal need. In these cases, prayer almost always becomes an exercise in all kinds of petitioning. How do we turn prayer from mere petition into regular conversations? It begins with the heart. This book is the author's expression of personal faith and conviction in prayer. From one way, Pye gives us seven ways! Given time, I believe she might come up with even more. Some may ask: Why do we need seven ways? The simple answer is this: Love. If we love God, we would want to grow in our relationship with God. Just like wanting to please a loved one, we will find different ways to express our love. Likewise, if the heart desires to grow in one's relationship with God, it is natural to desire more, not less of ways to communicate or interact. Sometimes, the heart may have the desire but simply lacks the spiritual tools needed to grow. This book is that tool to guide us and to inspire us to find the most appropriate way for each of our respective circumstances. 

I remember the famous work by Gary Chapman, called "The Five Love Languages." In it, he postulates that every one of us has different primary love languages. In the area of prayer, I think we can take a leaf from Chapman's ideas by saying that each of us has our own preferred way to pray. In fact, I believe that given time, not only will we improve our primary prayer language, we could also expand our pray repertoire. This is necessary because different situations would require different approaches in our prayers. For that reason, this book provides us the helpful tools to develop these additional approaches. Each chapter comes with a section on prayer practice to help us learn the way. Pye adapts the methods and includes specific examples for us to use and for easy learning. Motivated by love and a willingness to learn to adapt, our prayer lives can be enriched beyond our wildest imagination. Pray with the Bible, and if necessary, let this book nudge us on. 

Amy Boucher Pye is a writer, speaker, and spiritual director. She writes devotional thoughts for several publications including Our Daily Bread and New Daylight is the author of several books, including 7 Ways to Pray (NavPress/Form) and Celebrating Christmas (BRF). She blogs at www.amyboucherpye.com. 

Rating: 4 stars of 5.

conrade

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