Anchored in Christ

There are two topics I try to read books on regularly: the gospel and prayer. I read on the gospel because I need it to grow me, to humble me, to sanctify me, and to help me remember what God has done in Christ to save me. I read on prayer because my prayer life needs encouragement and guidance to strengthen my desire and skills at communicating with God.

Naturally, when I heard one of my favorite authors, Timothy Keller, was coming out with a book on prayer, I was eager to get my hands on a copy and dig in.

Prayer: Experiencing Prayer and Intimacy with God is a book that was birthed out of Keller’s realization of his own shortcomings in prayer. Both he and his wife were diagnosed with diseases during a certain season of their lives (his was thyroid cancer and hers was Crohn’s disease). This coupled with pastoring in Manhattan around the time of the September 11th terrorist attacks forced Keller to his knees and really begin to practice and wrestle with the concept of prayer.

Readers will sense within the first five pages just how well-read and well-thought-out Keller is in dealing with prayer. Keller sought to write on the essentials of prayer from a “theological, experiential, and methodological” perspective, and thus do something most books on prayer seldom do (1).

A Brief Summary

This book is divided into five parts, each comprising from two to five chapters. Part one is called “Desiring Prayer,” which answers the “why?” question about prayer and digs into its necessity, mapping out the terrain for the rest of the book.

Part two, “Understanding Prayer,” describes the many differing views of prayer from many vantage points including world religions, the non-religious, and various Christian traditions. He then moves to discuss how prayer is our response to God’s Word and share how the Trinity is essential to true prayer.

Part three, “Learning Prayer,” interacts with great theologians from church history (Augustin, Luther, and Calvin), sharing their instruction and methods in prayer. (I was especially helped by Keller’s interaction with Luther’s teaching on meditation on Scripture and the Holy Spirit “preaching to us” in prayer.) Keller then moves on to prescribe modeling our prayers along the Lord’s Prayer before laying out a biblical and balanced grid of what prayer is, what it requires, what it gives, and where it takes us.

Part four, “Deepening Prayer,” dives deeper into meditation and the experiential aspect of prayer, interacting with theologians like John Owen, J.I. Packer, Jonathan Edwards, and C.S. Lewis along gleaning truth and offering critique of medieval and Catholic practices of mystical prayer.

Part five, “Doing Prayer,” practically teaches just that: the place of praise in prayer, the role of the gospel in prayer, and our ability to ask for help in prayer. The last chapter offers a guide for daily prayer, sharing sample devotions and methods to practice.

My Experience

Simply put, I was floored by Prayer. There is much that he mentioned that will change my life and practice of prayer. Here are a few things that have been echoing in my head the past several days:

• We are to pray in Jesus name, not our own. This means that our basis for approaching God is the finished work of Christ and that we shouldn’t think our good works or performance earns us access to God.
• We are to always have the gospel in focus during prayer to keep us humble, fuel our praise, and provide us so many reasons to give thanks to God in prayer. If we are in Christ, it also grounds our prayer in reality and not circumstances around us.
• Meditating on Scripture is a bridge that moves from Scripture reading to heartfelt prayer.
• Prayer-lists can be unhelpful if they are merely rattled off to God like a grocery list. They should be accompanied with theological reasoning and self-examination.
• I also greatly valued interacting with people from church history and their experience in prayer.

What Center Church: Doing Balanced Gospel-Centered Ministry in Your City did for equipping and encouraging gospel-centered ministers, Prayer does for equipping and encouraging gospel-centered pray-ers. The rich theology of Prayer grounded me in biblical truth and motivated me for prayer; the experiential aspect guided me in understanding more of what prayer is like while pushing me to dig deeper; and the methodological section equipped me to develop my own practical and sustainable life of prayer that makes a difference. I feel like I’ve just gone through a masters-level class on prayer.

Keller interacts with a variety of authors and theologians and puts together a scholarly—but not overly-scholarly—treatment on prayer that may be the most well-rounded book on prayer there is.

Who This Is For

Prayer is a book for people who want biblical grounding in prayer, a gospel motivation to pray, and practical methods for prayer. This book might be hard for some due to its somewhat scholarly nature (Keller writes for a well-educated congregation in Manhattan), but shouldn’t scare people away who are serious about maturing in their understanding and experience of prayer.

I could see this book being widely read by a variety of people. Christians looking to deepen their understanding and practice of prayer will find it invaluable. Small groups will value its practical instruction, gospel-grounding, and prescribed methods, while Bible school and seminary students will value the depth of citations and additional resources in the appendix and learning from different Christian traditions they might not otherwise have exposure to.

The true value of this book will not lie in having read and understood it, but from having it change your daily life and practice. I am greatly challenged to more intentionally pursue a richer, deeper, more faithful and more God-honoring time in prayer. I hope it does the same for you.

Title: Prayer: Experiencing Awe and Intimacy with God
Author: Timothy Keller
Publisher: Dutton House
Year: 2014
Rating: 5 Stars

Bonus Resources:

A 14-Day Devotional On Prayer by Timothy Keller
20 Quotes from Keller’s New Book on Prayer from The Gospel Coalition

A Short Promo Video for the Book