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Sinclair B. Ferguson referred
to the Lord’s Prayer as a miniature seminar on the Christian life. Richard Pratt
commented on this book, “In our day when new forms of spirituality are appearing
all around us, we need to return to this prayer once again.”
Praying is absolutely essential
to living the Christian life and Christians are characterized as people who
pray. But praying is not something that we learn once and for all. Praying is a
process, a never-ending process that Christians must practice.
We get many books across our
desk on prayer. In one sense it is good that people are writing about prayer.
All too often, though, prayer is written about in a way that the focuses on man.
There are also those who talk about prayer as though their prayers are without
error and God must do what they ask. Too often we do see prayer as an act of
worship before it becomes an act of confession and petition. Derek Thomas has
written one of the best and most challenging books on prayer that I have read.
He uses the Lord’s Prayer as his base. After all, Jesus taught his disciples “to
pray like this.”
In the opening chapter, Thomas
gives a good overview of how Christians have tended to view the Lord’s Prayer in
history. What was Jesus’ intent is giving it to his disciples? Was it to be a
public prayer or a private one? Were we meant to use it as our only prayer? Did
he not give us other models of prayer in the Bible? Thomas helps us to
understand the answers to these and other questions.
He points out that this is a
prayer form intended to be used occasionally in worship. It is a form that is
always instructive, whether for public or private prayer. While it might be
helpful to read a host of other books related to prayer, I can think of no
better primer, refresher or graduate course on prayer than revisiting the Lord’s
Prayer. Thomas points out that this prayer that Jesus taught his disciples to
pray does several things. It reminds us that prayer is first worship. This
prayer is a comprehensive prayer. It contains the main elements of prayer:
adoration, petition, and confession. And, he says, it is brief.
Thomas points out that while
some think analyzing our prayers is unspiritual, that might be the very thing we
need to do. With that I totally concur. I used this book to do just that and
have already found great blessing in doing so. In chapter one, he explains the
Lord’s Prayer that three things emerge: it is a conversational response to God
or it reveals who we think God is. It is also covenantal in that it reflects the
relation we have with God. Finally, it speaks of consistency in praying.
We have written both in
previous book reviews and articles that God intends for our theology and
doctrine to be life-oriented. As I read this book, especially the first five
chapters, each dealing with deep theology and doctrine, Thomas dealt with those
topics so practically that he shows us how to make our theology and doctrines of
the faith, a daily part of the warp and woof of our lives.
Thomas reminds us that the
Lord’s Prayer is all about putting God first. It is a matter of attitude. In
doing that we are able to pray with a better perspective about God, his will,
and our daily lives. One quote will give you a sampling of its readability. He
is talking about people’s confusion about prayer. He writes, “The problem seems
to be one of trying to point satellite dishes in the right direction in order to
pick up the signals that God is sending.” He then states, “Putting the Bible
first will keep us from error in thinking and error in practice.”
Derek Thomas is the assistant
professor of theology at Reformed Theological Seminary in Jackson, MS. and no
stranger to most of us. This book will be a great blessing to you and certainly
help each of us to better understand how to obey Christ’s instruction “to pray
like this.” I recommend it heartily.
- Charles Dunahoo, CEP
Coordinator
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