by Jen Pollock Michel
ISBN 978-0-8308-4312-1
IVP Crescendo
Reviewed by Clint Walker
I actually finished this book about a year ago. I then had the distinct privilege in going to a presentation about the book by the author. I have been very impressed. even though I am just getting around to writing the review.
Teach Us to Pray is a wonderful, readable, and also intellectually powerful study of the Lord's Prayer as a prayer that trains our desires. Deeply conversational and confessional in nature, Michel takes the Lord's Prayer step by step, at times leading her readers toward conviction of their sinful and unhealthy desires, and at times positively encouraging the readers, reminding them that God made human beings to be desiring creatures.
Throughout Teach Us to Pray Michel reflects and tells stories well. The book is very quotable, and so at the bottom of this post, I will have some quotes I have harvested from the book. Although written by a woman for a line of books directed at women, the book is easy to connect to for people of both genders.
This book deserves to be read for years to come.
"We pray best when we need God most" (p. 197)
"Holiness is formed in us more unspectacularly and more incrementally than we expect--wherever the practice of small everyday faithfulness is required of us" (p. 198)
"Storytelling and story keeping: these are acts of faith. They preserve faithfulness." (p. 189).
"We easily dismiss desire, arguing that the goal of Christian life is obedience" (p. 23).
"The Bible is not just information about God: It is the living voice of God" (p. 47).
"Holy trust believes that whatever God chooses to give is enough" (p. 84)
"To say that God is good is not the same thing as saying that life is good." (p. 101)
"Clarity and certainty are not the soil in which faith grows." (p. 112).
"Desire expressed in prayer risks on grace" (p. 118).
"In asking for God's provision we're admitting our inability to self-sustain" (p. 127).
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