The Power of Personal Prayer - Jon Graf

This book is amazing. Let me say that at the beginning here. This book is perhaps one that has influenced my life the most in all that I have read. 5 stars for sure! Whether you have an excellent prayer life or if you are struggling with prayer, this book is wonderful! I am completely amazed at this book. It is great!

Jon Graf starts off by stating the two main reasons for prayer. Though he goes on in detail to explain more about prayer, he uses these two concepts as a foundation for them. The first one is Relationship:

So it is with God. If we are to develop a relationship with Him, prayer becomes central. If we do not spend time with Him, if we do not talk to Him, if we do not listen to Him, we have no relationship. We can know about God by reading the Bible, but we cannot know God without prayer.

The second is Releasing God's Will:

The second major purpose for prayer is that it releases God's will on earth. While I cannot explain how it works, somehow, in God's sovereign plan, He has chosen to accomplish certain aspects of His will only if people pray. Some believers cringe at this teaching. "What do you mean it releases God's will?" they say. "God's will is God's will. He's going to do it whether we pray or not." But Scripture, Christians of the past centuries, and experience all tell us otherwise.

The author has divided the book into three sections:

1. The Foundations of Prayer

This part of the book covers four questions: What is Prayer?, How do I Pray?, Where do I Pray?, and To Whom Should I Pray?. This section, I think, is mostly for a new believer, especially the beginning. Still, very good, and taught me a lot about prayer.

2. The Types of Prayer

The types of prayer covers different types of prayer, including the prayer of Petition, the prayer of Intercession, prayers of Adoration and Thanksgiving, and Spiritual Warfare prayer. I enjoyed this section a lot and helped me diversify my prayer life.

3. More Effective Prayer

This section is the most practical of the three, giving you actual ways that you can pray, praying using scripture, fasting, God's will concerning prayer, hindrances to prayer, among many other things. I think that this section helped me the most in my actual prayer life, since it is practical. The other sections are a bit more informative and less practical.

As I said at the beginning of the review, it is hard to find a book that has impacted me more than this one. If there were one, it would be Do Hard Things, by Alex and Brett Harris. Still, this book is amazing, and I highly recommend it.

Available from Amazon for $10.19 with Free Super Saver Shipping. I have seen it cheaper around on the web, so don't automatically buy from Amazon.