"TRANSFORMING PRAYER" by Daniel Henderson

Good Evening to All!

I received a complementary copy of "Transforming Prayer" by Daniel Henderson through Bethany House Publishers.

This is an excellent book on developing your prayer life into something deeper than just a "gimme list", or an "I need help" list. Yes, this is important, but our prayer life will be so much richer if we have a down-right, face-to-face love affair with God and let Him know how we feel about Him whether we ask for something or not.

I couldn't believe it when I read these words because it was just what my Pastor said last night. God's Word says to worship Him in spirit and in truth. ²³But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship him. I hadn't thought much about it til last night. I thought in terms of God being a Spirit and that He is also truth. While that's true, this verse has a "lower case "s" so it is talking about us. Our spirit, our emotion. The truth He is talking about is our sincerity. So we are to worship God with all our emotion and sincerity we've got, not just give Him a laundry list of our needs, after all, like Mr. Henderson and the Bible says, God knows what we need before we ask for it.

I love the way Mr. Henderson "puts it out there". He writes everything so simplistically that anyone can understand it.

For example, one chapter deals with "Transforming Prayer for Dummies". Just up my ally. A couple of ideas: Prayer is not asking God to do my will. It is bringing myself into conformity with His will. It s asking Him to do His will and to give me the grace to enjoy it.
John MacArthur

For of Him and through Him and to Him are all things, to whom be glory forever. Amen. I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. The Apostle Paul- Romans 11:36-12:2

Maybe another reason I like it is because it's not some "hum-drum" boring list of how to pray, what to pray and so on. He has neat little quotes that will help me to remember the purpose of my prayer, like "We spend more prayer energy trying to keep sick Christians out of heaven, than trying to keep lost people out of hell. James Walker

You ask and do not receive, because you ask amiss, that you may spend it on your pleasures. James 4:3

Sometimes, little things like this will "hit me" just right and wake me up rather than a long drawn out sermon on how we should change our prayer life. (Not that sermons like that don't do me good. It's good to have my toes stepped on once in a while.

Mr. Henderson made the comment that "it's easy to reduce our prayer to the typical "organ recital" by praying for someones pancreas, another person's liver, someone else's stomach. We spend so much time thing about all of these we forget the most important part, and that is recognizing who God is. He is capable of taking care of all of these needs and much more.

I really enjoyed this book because it is NOT a deep book, or hard to follow. It is filled with a wealth of information to help us in our everyday prayer life. After all, if you feel that your prayers are not being answered, there is probably a reason for that feeling. This book will help you find out why, and correct it if you will heed the advice and the practices in this book. Another plus is, at the end, there are questions you can answer and discussions you can delve into.

I guarantee, you will have a different perspective on prayer after you finish this book.

It was a totally awesome book and I would recommend it to anyone in search of a better prayer life, or even those just wanting answers as to why their prayer answers are being delayed.

Good Night to All and May God Bless!