Book Review – Prone to Wander: Prayers of Confession and Celebration (5/12)

There may be people who have a flair for preaching, but I doubt there’s anyone who has a flair for praying. Compared to preaching, it’s even harder to find good prayer-ers. Why is that? Partly because good prayers are work hard, I do not think that any persons who prays well who has not put in countless hours of private prayers or who has not put hard work thinking through what and how to pray.

As young christians, we primarily learn how to pray by listening to how others pray. As one examines the history of how hermeneutics or theology has grown it is surprising how prayer has stayed relatively stagnant through the years. We have volumes of sermons printed, but few volumes on prayers.  Perhaps “The Valley of Vision” or “Lifting up Our Hearts” comes to mind, but good prayers are terribly hard to find.

Which is why I love this book, this book helps christians to pray. They are good, biblical and sound prayers that’s fit for every christian to learn. Furthermore, they have a wide range of prayers available for christians to learn how and what to pray in different occasions.

Each prayer is built within a context of a bible reading. And the prayer helps the reader/prayer-er to learn how to respond to the text in view. The prayers are order according to the books of the bible, with prayers starting from Genesis all the way to the letters of John. All the prayers begin with a call to confession, essentially the reading of a passage of a bible. Next, a prayer of confession, helping readers vocalise and pray in response to the passage read. Lastly, assurance of pardon, this is also a passage in the bible that aims to reassure christians about the grace and the power of God to save and to keep.

Christians of all walks of lives should be thankful for this work by Barbara Duguid and Wayne Houk. Highly Recommended for all christians, worship leaders, pastors or anyone who leads the congregation in public prayer ought to buy this book and use it constantly, so that our prayers might grow in leaps and bounds. Really do consider getting one for yourself and maybe another as a christmas present. This really is a great book.

Rating: 5 / 5

If you’re interested you can get yours here and here (free international shipping), Kindle

Disclaimer: I was given this book free from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

Here’s an apt quote from Spurgeon (Credits: Logos Bible Software)