A Praying Life: Connecting with God in a Distracting World

by Paul E. Miller, David Powlison (Foreword by)

Overview

More than 500,000 copies sold! Updated and expanded!
Prayer is hard. Often, unless circumstances demand it—such as an illness or saying grace before a meal—most of us simply do not pray. This kind of prayerlessness can leave us with a distressed spirit and practical unbelief characterized by fear, anxiety, joylessness, and spiritual depression.

A Praying Life is a prayer guide that has encouraged thousands of Christians to pursue a vibrant prayer life full of joy and power and has helped them learn how to pray faithfully and courageously. A life of prayer invites you to a life of connection to God. When Jesus describes the intimacy that He seeks with us, He talks about joining us for dinner (Revelation 3:20). This book reminds readers that prayer is simply making conversation with God a rhythm of daily Christian life.

A Praying Life includes chapters about:

• How to deal with unanswered prayer
• How to start a prayer journal
• Does prayer make a difference?

Now with added chapters addressing prayers of lament and further guidance for using prayer cards, Paul Miller invites you to foster prayer that regularly hopes, trusts, and expects God to act. Learn to develop helpful habits and approaches to prayer that will enable you to return to a childlike faith and witness spiritual growth today!

“This book will be like having the breath of God at your back. Let it lift you to new hope.” —Dan B. Allender, PhD, author of Bold Love

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781631468810
Publisher:	The Navigators
Publication date:	04/03/2017
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	304
File size:	11 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.

About the Author

Paul Miller is director of seeJesus.net, an organization that develops interactive Bible studies for small groups. He is the author of Love Walked Among Us (NavPress), The PrayerLife Study , The Person of Jesus , an interactive study of the wonder of Jesus and his love. He also travels widely and teaches Jesus Weekends, Person of Jesus seminars, and PrayerLife seminars. Paul and his wife, Jill, have six children and live near Philadelphia.

Table of Contents

Foreword 9

Introduction 11

1 "What Good Does It Do?" 13

2 Where We Are Headed 19

Part 1 Learning to Pray Like a Child

3 Become Like a Little Child 29

4 Learn to Talk with Your Father 37

5 Spending Time with Your Father 43

6 Learning to Be Helpless 53

7 Crying "Abba" - Continuously 63

8 Bending Your Heart to Your Father 69

Part 2 Learning to Trust Again

9 Understanding Cynicism 77

10 Following Jesus out of Cynicism 83

11 Developing an Eye for Jesus 95

Part 3 Learning to Ask Your Father

12 Why Asking Is So Hard 103

13 Why We Can Ask 113

14 How Personal Is God? 119

15 What Do We Do with Jesus' Extravagant Promises About Prayer? 129

16 What We Don't Ask For: "Our Daily Bread" 141

17 What We Don't Ask For: "Your Kingdom Come" 149

18 Surrender Completely: "Your Will Be Done" 155

Part 4 Living in Your Father's Story

19 Watching a Story Unfold 165

20 A Father's Love 173

21 Unanswered Prayer: Understanding the Patterns of Story 179

22 How God Places Himself in the Story 189

23 Praying Without a Story 195

24 Hope: The End of the Story 205

25 Living in Gospel Stories 211

Part 5 Praying in Real Life

26 Using Prayer Tools 221

27 Keeping Track of the Story: Using Prayer Cards 225

28 Prayer Work 235

29 Listening to God 239

30 Prayer Journaling: Become Aware of the Interior Journey 249

31 Real-Life Praying 257

32 Unfinished Stories 263

Acknowledgments 269

Notes 271

About the Author 279

What People are Saying About This

Scotty Smith

In my library, I have perhaps twenty different volumes on prayer, but none captured my heart or propelled me into fresh communion with our Father as much as A Praying Life. Finally, a book that applies the radical implications of the gospel of God’s grace to prayer! With childlike wonder, sage-like wisdom, and heartfelt candor, Paul shows us that to pray is to see Jesus more clearly and meet him more regularly in every single aspect and moment of the day. Thanks, my friend, for calling me back to what really matters.

Honest, realistic, mature, wise, deep. Warmly recommended.

Philip Ryken

Paul Miller refuses to separate the spiritual life from the rest of our daily living. In A Praying Life, he shows the difference that constant communication with Christ makes in the everyday experiences of life, especially the life of the family. Reading this book will help you make prayer a more important part of your own life story by integrating prayer into the daily routines of life.

J. I. Packer

Honest, realistic, mature, wise, deep. Warmly recommended.

Dan B. Allender

Prayer, the concept and the practice, exposes our core doubts and desperation for God. Paul Miller captures the promise of prayer as a gift that connects us to the heart of the Father and as a path for transforming the world. Paul’s honest struggle with living a life full of prayer and his childlike delight in hearing the heart of God invite us to gratitude and call us to speak boldly to our God. This book will be like having the breath of God at your back. Let it lift you to new hope.

Tim Keller

If Jesus or Jesus’ saving grace is just an abstraction to you, Paul Miller will be a great help in making his love a living reality to your heart.

Tremper Longman III

A Praying Life is a deeply moving testimony to God’s power in prayer. Paul Miller shares his life and biblical wisdom to instill in us, his readers, a “heart that becomes a factory of prayer”—that is, a passion to speak to God honestly and in a way that will change our life and the lives of others for whom we pray.

Ken Sande

Charles Spurgeon wrote, “Prayer does not fit us for the greater works; prayer is the greater work.” Paul Miller’s superb book calls us back to this “greater work,” reminding us of the joy we find in our Lord’s presence and equipping us with practical insight on how to recapture the intimacy and power of a praying life.

Paul David Tripp

A book on prayer that actually makes you want to pray!

Editorial Reviews

With simple clarity Arthur Morey delivers the author's practical thoughts on prayer, emphasizing the commitment to and the practice of daily prayer. Miller says people make prayer their focus instead of communing with God and nurturing their relationship with Him while asking for His advice and help. He explores what motivates prayer, the practice of daily prayer, and the importance of praying alone, with boldness and honesty, as well as discusses prayer successes and difficulties and the crisis of faith that breeds doubt. In 32 chapters, divided into five parts, Morey explains Miller's views on childlike prayer, issues of trust, and "real-life" prayer. Listeners will find Morey's meticulous narration of Miller's honest look at prayer insightful and inspiring. G.D.W. © AudioFile 2010, Portland, Maine

AUGUST 2010 - AudioFile