I grew up outside of the Reformed tradition, though I have been a member of Presbyterian or Reformed churches for over a decade. Growing up, it was common to describe people in the church as “prayer warriors.” This is not something I have heard much of in the P&R context. Whether for good (humility) or ill (prayerlessness), many of the saints I have been privileged to walk alongside in this pilgrimage have been understated in their prayer lives. There is always room for growth.
This volume is perfectly aimed for people who know they could grow in their prayer life, which I think is a healthy place to be. I have been teaching through the Heidelberg Catechism on Sunday evenings, and recently we began the section on the Lord’s Prayer. I have recommended this book the whole way through. Reverend Sanchez is a reliable guide.
Audience
This book is perfect for a Bible study. The writing is easy to read and accessible while also presenting new (old) ways of thinking about prayer. The length is very manageable. There are also questions and exercises at the end of every chapter to help bridge the material from merely the theoretical to the daily practice of prayer.
At the end of the chapters there are questions for reflection and exercises to undergird the teaching of that section. These certainly could aid any Bible study leader in your church. If you are a pastor looking for a fall Bible study or an elder or Sunday school teacher (or both), this book would be worth walking people through.
Usefulness
Sanchez has worked through a lot of material on prayer and especially the Lord’s Prayer. He synthesizes a broad range of sources on prayer, both ancient and modern. On the same page you might find quotes from a church father, John Calvin, and Eugene Peterson. To put it mildly, this is a churchly book, which is worthy of appreciation. It can be easy when teaching, writing, or reflecting on prayer to lapse into individualism. Even in the exercises, there is a recognition that you should be interacting with your church leaders before starting up any new programs in your church (50).
The church can sometimes seem like the forgotten piece in evangelical piety; thus, this book’s consciousness of the church—local, global, and historical—is commendable. This is a book on prayer that has an ecclesiology.
One of the chief strengths of this book lies in its ability to show how accessible and practical the wisdom of the ages can be in our prayer life. This book constantly points beyond itself both to the riches of the church’s reflection on prayer, and to how those riches affect the believer’s day-to-day life. To these ends, it is well researched, biblically grounded, and clearly communicated.
Part 1
The first part of the book starts with some practical considerations about prayer, asking and answering from the Scriptures questions like: When should we pray? Should we schedule time for prayer? The chapters of this part are named, “The Heart of Prayer,” “The Postures of Prayer,” and “The Time to Pray.”
Personally speaking, this is the portion of the book that has left a mark. Many of our assumptions about prayer are not shared by saints through the ages. This book gives us a taste of the “fresh seabreeze of the centuries” to challenge some of the Pentecostal piety we may have unwittingly imbibed regarding prayer.1 The reflections in these chapters on posture, scheduling, and regularity strike a balance of biblical and practical.
Two observations will serve to drive home the wisdom of this section. First, as a parent of young children, I have come to a new appreciation of posture. I see myself in my four-year-old whose hands are too busy during prayer. Thus, biblical postures of folding hands and kneeling help us both. Second, as a minister I know our officers are often over-scheduled and, if my earlier observation holds, fairly humble in their own prayer life. This book encourages setting aside daily prayer time, not as formalism, but like a gym routine. It takes discipline, more than occasional visits to the gym, to see results (32–33).
Part 2
The second part focuses on walking through the Lord’s Prayer and its petitions. The strength of this section, much like the former, is making the wisdom of our tradition accessible. The Heidelberg Catechism (119–126) and the Westminster Shorter Catechism (98–107) both culminate with teaching on the Lord’s Prayer. These sections serve to represent the significant place these petitions have taken in the P&R teaching on prayer.
This book walks though the petitions and makes such teaching accessible. The chapters focus on the address to God as Father, and the six petitions. They smoothly blend personal reflection, the meaning of the petitions, and the history of how the church has understood them.
Critique and Conclusion
The biggest critique I could give is that there could be more! This book is the tip of the iceberg, though it does well to point the reader to the depths that are below for anyone interested. Another critique is that, in the copy that I received, most of the quotes at the beginning and prayers at the end lack bibliographic citation. This means more work is required for the interested pastor or study leader who wants to find the context for these quotes and prayers.
This book is for those who recognize that they might need to grow in prayer. It is also written in such a way that it can be easily adaptable for a group study, either as a book study or as a resource for a teacher. I highly recommend this volume to anyone wanting to grow and mature in their prayer life.
Notes
- This metaphor belongs to C. S. Lewis, “Introduction,” in St. Athanasius, On the Incarnation, (Crestwood, NY: St. Vladimir’s Seminary Press, 1998), 5.
©Luke Gossett. All Rights Reserved.
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Luke Gossett
Rev. Luke Gossett (MA Westminster Seminary California; MA and PhD Candidate, Catholic University of America) is the pastor of Ascension Presbyterian Church (a mission of the OPC Presbytery of the South) in his hometown of Birmingham, Alabama. His dissertation focuses on the linguistic functions of the Hebrew word for “now.” Luke has been married to his wife, Jennifer, since 2014, and they have three wonderful children.
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