Prayer: Does It Make Any Difference?
by Philip Yancey
List Price:
Our Price: $4.00
You Save: $17.99 (82%)
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Buy Used: from $1.49 (click here)
Category: Book
See more book details and other editions
Book Summary Information
Author: Philip YanceyEdition: Hardcover
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2006-09-12
ISBN: 0310271053
Number of pages: 352
Publisher: Zondervan
Product features:
- ISBN13: 9780310271055
- Condition: New
- Notes: BRAND NEW FROM PUBLISHER! 100% Satisfaction Guarantee. Tracking provided on most orders. Buy with Confidence! Millions of books sold!
Book Reviews of Prayer: Does It Make Any Difference?
Book Review: Can we do no less?
Summary: 5 Stars
One of the greatest mysteries in the Christian faith is the idea that God communicates with us and, amazingly, wants us to communicate with Him. So with great anticipation I began bestselling author Philip Yancey's PRAYER: Does It Make Any Difference?
Yancey's skills as a journalist shine through in this book. He mines the wisdom of ancient and contemporary writers on prayer, conducts interviews and consults statistics. Nine out of ten of us pray regularly, he notes. We pray when our child is ill and we pray for trivial things, such as lost car keys. Why then, as Yancey found when interviewing people, do so many find prayer a burden and not a pleasure? After all, it came so easily to Adam in the garden --- walking with God and conversing with Him.
Yancey writes that prayer doesn't come easily for him and confesses he appreciates prayer mostly in retrospect. "I look for ways to avoid it and keep glancing at the clock as I'm praying." But even these prayers are meaningful. "During the day, however, thoughts and impressions come to mind that stem directly from my prayers.... Like a lingering scent, prayer carries over into the rest of the day."
Yancey finds that most of his struggles in the Christian life circle around the same two themes: why God doesn't act the way we want God to, and why we don't act the way God wants us to. He writes, "Prayer is the precise point where those themes converge."
If prayer is about a relationship with God, perhaps it's no surprise that it is a rollercoaster of ups and downs. "Prayer includes moments of ecstasy and also dullness, mindless distraction and acute concentration, flashes of joy and bouts of irritation. In other words, prayer has features in common with all relationships that matter," he writes.
In this relationship with God, we don't have to be afraid to show our emotions: fear, anger, grief. God wants us to come to Him with honesty. After all, if He knows everything about us, down to the number of hairs on our heads, He already knows our feelings. Our willingness to approach Him honestly, however, may be tempered with our image of God. Do we see Him as an angry, vengeful God? A helpless wimp? A loving father? Good food for thought.
I appreciated Yancey's rejection of a "one-size-fits-all" sort of approach to prayer. Most of all, he calls us to relax. There's no right way to pray. The only wrong way is not to try. "Prayer is a way of relating to God, not a skill set like double-entry bookkeeping.... It should hardly surprise God that we respond in a way that reflects our true self."
If you like an author who doesn't have all the answers but is willing to explore the questions with you, then this book will be a good fit. Yancey offers no pat answers. "Why does God so rarely step in and bring miraculous intervention to our prayer requests? Why is suffering distributed so randomly and unfairly? No one knows the complete answer to these questions."
As Yancey explores various facets of prayer --- listening, petitioning, postures, prayer in the midst of suffering --- he draws several important conclusions. The main purpose of prayer is not to make life easier nor to gain magical powers, but to know God. Prayer gives us corrective vision and helps us align our petitions with what God wants for us. Prayer is a habit of attention. Asking for help, acknowledging our dependence, is at the root of prayer. Without prayer, he writes, we cannot effect social justice.
Why pray? Yancey offers several thoughts on the matter. "I pray to restore the truth of the universe, to gain a glimpse of the world, and of me, through the eyes of God," he writes in one chapter. In another, he notes simply, "Evidently, God likes to be asked."
Yancey's PRAYER contains a smorgasbord of references to other writers, inviting readers to further explore many rich writings on prayer from both Protestant and Catholic traditions. Just a few that are included: C.S. Lewis, Walter Wangerin Jr., Meister Eckhart, Ole Hallesby, E.M. Bounds, Thomas Merton, Frederick Buechner, Desmond Tutu, Eugene Peterson, Carlo Caretto, Mother Teresa, Anthony Bloom, Thomas Kelly, Henri Nouwen and Brennan Manning. Scattered throughout the book are boxed essays by writers noted simply as "John" or "Anthony" or "Sara." I particularly liked these simple, personal stories from people who are taking baby steps toward the discipline of prayer.
Yancey engagingly uses nature as a touchstone throughout the book, from an anecdote about watching a herd of elk in a meadow and contemplating a quiet mind and absorbed attention, to the grandeur of God and our own smallness as seen hiking in the mountains. However, the extensive footnotes on many pages are one distracting part of the book. One may find themselves wishing for endnotes or, if you're forty-something like me, at least bigger type.
In the end, does prayer matter? Yancey writes, "When doubts creep in and I wonder whether prayer is a sanctified form of talking to myself, I remind myself that the Son of God, who had spoken worlds into being and sustains all that exists, felt a compelling need to pray."
Can we do no less?
--- Reviewed by Cindy Crosby
Summary of Prayer: Does It Make Any Difference?
In his most powerful book since What's So Amazing About Grace? and The Jesus I Never Knew, Philip Yancey probes the very heartbeat---the most fundamental, challenging, perplexing, and deeply rewarding aspect---of our relationship with God: prayer. What is prayer? How does it work? And more importantly, does it work? In theory, prayer is the essential human act, a priceless point of contact between us and the God of the universe. In practice, prayer is often frustrating, confusing, and fraught with mystery. Prayer: Does It Make Any Difference? is an exploration of the mysterious intersection where God and humans meet and relate. Writing as a fellow pilgrim, Yancey explores such questions as: *Is God listening? *Why should God care about me? *If God knows everything, what's the point of prayer? *Why do answers to prayer seem so inconsistent and capricious? *Why does God seem sometimes close and sometimes far away? *How can I make prayer more satisfying? 'I have found that the most important purpose of prayer may be to let ourselves be loved by God,' says Yancey. Prayer: Does It Make Any Difference? encourages us to pray to God the Father who sees what lies ahead of us, knows what lies within us, and who invites us into an eternal partnership---through prayer. Also available: unabridged audio CD.Christian Living Books
Book Subjects
- Arts & Photography
- Biographies & Memoirs
- Business & Investing
- Children's Books
- Comics & Graphic Novels
- Computers & Internet
- Cooking, Food & Wine
- Entertainment
- Gay & Lesbian
- Health, Mind & Body
- History
- Home & Garden
- Horror
- Law
- Literature & Fiction
- Mystery & Thrillers
- Nonfiction
- Outdoors & Nature
- Parenting & Families
- Professional & Technical
- Reference
- Religion & Spirituality
- Romance
- Science
- Science Fiction & Fantasy
- Sports
- Teens
- Travel
Most talked about in Christian Living Books
A Survey of the Old Testamentby Andrew E. Hill, John H. Walton
Zondervan; Published: 2009-02-10; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $22.01
Price in other shops:
Steps to Christby Ellen Gould Harmon White
General Books LLC; Published: 2012-01-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $14.14
The 1928 Book of Common PrayerOxford University Press, USA; Published: 1993-11-18; Leather Bound; Book
Price in other shops:
A People's History of Christianity: The Other Side of the Storyby Diana Butler Bass
HarperOne; Published: 2010-03-23; Paperback; Book
Best price: $7.50
Price in other shops:
Works of Loveby Soren Kierkegaard
Harper Perennial; Published: 1964-10-27; Paperback; Book
Best price: $6.98
Price in other shops:
America by Heart : Reflections on Family, Faith, and Flagby Sarah Palin
Harper Collins Publishers; Harper; Published: 2010-11-23; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $0.01
Price in other shops:
The Divine Conspiracy: Rediscovering Our Hidden Life In Godby Dallas Willard
HarperOne; Published: 1998-03-24; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $13.60
Price in other shops:
God for Us: The Trinity and Christian Lifeby Catherine Mowry Lacugna
Harpercollins College Div; Published: 1992-01; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $73.97
Ruthless Trustby Brennan Manning
HarperAudio; Published: 2004-01-06; Audio Cassette; Book
Best price: $3.04
Price in other shops:
The Screwtape Lettersby C. S. Lewis
Macmillan; Published: 1982; Paperback; Book
Similar Books and other products
Where Is God When It Hurts?by Philip Yancey
Zondervan; Published: 1997-03-07; Mass Market Paperback; Book
Best price: $2.33
Price in other shops:
Where Is God When It Hurts?by Philip Yancey
Zondervan; Published: 2002-03-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $5.68
Price in other shops:
What Good Is God?: In Search of a Faith That Mattersby Philip Yancey
FaithWords; Published: 2010-10-19; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $6.99
Price in other shops:
Disappointment with Godby Philip Yancey
Zondervan; Published: 1997-09-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $4.99
Price in other shops:
Prayer: Does It Make Any Difference?by Philip Yancey
Zondervan; Published: 2010-04-20; Paperback; Book
Best price: $8.99
Price in other shops:
The Jesus I Never Knewby Phillip Yancey
Zondervan; Published: 1995-09-22; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $4.84
Price in other shops:
What's So Amazing About Grace?by Philip Yancey
Zondervan; Published: 1997-10-10; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $4.99
Price in other shops:
The Jesus I Never Knewby Philip Yancey
Zondervan; Published: 2002-02-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $8.00
Price in other shops:
Prayer Participant's Guide: Six Sessions on Our Relationship with God (Groupware Small Group Edition)by Philip Yancey
Zondervan; Published: 2007-08-28; Paperback; Book
Best price: $4.00
Price in other shops:
What's So Amazing About Grace?by Philip Yancey
Zondervan; Published: 2002-02-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $6.96
Price in other shops: