Shaped for Prayer Enjoyment

Can prayer become a favourite enjoyment? Absolutely. God is the guarantor of prayer joy and he invites us to a journey beyond duty and sameness. It means being stretched and changed, but we get to live the prayer enjoyment adventure he designed for us. Prayer is the core and the cutting edge of life in Christ and is much too important to lose through non-enjoyment. The Lord has given us a frame for enjoyable prayer: his constant presence. In that frame we become pray-ers marked by raised heart living and hunger for him. Part I of the book captures the “Wow!” of life in God’s company and explains how awareness of his presence can make a difference to prayer life. Part II gives the how-to of breaking new ground in enjoyable prayer. The Lord is the first speaker in the prayer relationship and learning to shape our praying as a response that agrees with him is a mix of desire and discipline. The reader gets to explore that mix by following four pathways for using Scripture to shape prayer. But even shaped praying can become dull and tired, unless we stretch our prayer language to give the heart a bigger expression. The section on visual language explains how. Praying together can be powerful and enjoyable when done in agreement. The agreement-building keys given will enhance corporate prayer, and can be used in large and small group settings. Growing in prayer enjoyment is not about self-indulgence; it’s a journey for God’s pleasure. The book climaxes with a call to live missional prayer lives, to be ‘pray-ers on the move’ who are passionate about voicing responses to the Lord in any place and at any cost, for the joy it brings him.