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179 reviews

Zach Barnhart

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Zach’s currently-reading shelf

The Works of Stephen Charnock, Volume 1 by Stephen Charnock

Sermons On The Lord's Supper by Jonathan Edwards

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Zach is Currently Reading

Zach Barnhart is currently reading

Sermons On The Lord's Supper

by Jonathan Edwards

bookshelves: currently-reading, theology

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(page 47 of 271)
— Aug 26, 2025 07:00PM

Aug 26, 2025 06:09PM

Zach Barnhart is currently reading

A Praying Life: Connecting With God In A Distracting World

by Paul E. Miller (Goodreads Author)

bookshelves: church-life, currently-reading

Reading for the 2nd time

read in January 2019

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Zach Barnhart said: " I'm beginning this year with the hopes of learning more about prayer. I'm going to devote a lot of my reading time to learning more about what it is and how to do it. Paul Miller's "A Praying Life" was the first book I started to that end. And by God I'm beginning this year with the hopes of learning more about prayer. I'm going to devote a lot of my reading time to learning more about what it is and how to do it. Paul Miller's "A Praying Life" was the first book I started to that end. And by God's providence, I believe, I couldn't have started with a better one for my dive into the subject.

What makes Miller's book totally unique is that it is true to its title in a way I was not expecting. I took "A Praying Life" to purely mean that I would know and understand how to have a life characterized by prayer by the end of the book. However, this was more of a showcase of "a praying life," Paul's life, on display for us to see and learn from, without being boastful in any way. Paul shared a host of examples from his own life and how it's been shaped or mended by prayer along the way. It's as if the book says, "Look and see; this is what a praying life looks like."

To see it so concretely, in these human stories and experiences, helped me deeply. Prayer is hard, because if we get honest with ourselves, we just don't think it makes much difference day to day. But Paul believes it does. He believes prayer helped him and his wife, Jill, keep their sanity. It helps him in the minutiae of life with his daughter, Kim. And what Paul offers us in "A Praying Life" is not a listicle for becoming the Perfect Spiritually Disciplined Pray-er. He casts a vision for the beauty and necessity of prayer in a way few other books do.

The book's concepts are not written from the ivory tower. This is theology for real life, not for mere academia. In the pages of "A Praying Life" is the call to finding childlike faith, of learning to speak and trust our Father as we should, and be okay with our weaknesses. It's learning to not settle for the easier way of cynicism, and to develop an eye for Jesus in the ups and downs of life.

The book is split into five parts, but there seems to me a natural divide between the first four parts and the last one. There is a heavy upfront emphasis on the "theology" of prayer in this book. Before we can get to techniques and practices, we've got to address bigger and deeper prayer struggles, such as "Learning To Pray Like a Child" (Part One). Don't skip any of these first four parts, even if you think you "know that already." None of us feel comfortable with how much we pray, or how much prayer matters to us.

My only (very small!) critique of the book is that I wish there was just a bit more devoted to the actual practice of prayer. Part Five, "Praying In Real Life," gets into this realm. I closed out that section and the rest of the book hoping for a little more to grab onto and take with me as I seek to apply everything Miller has been arguing for. But again, as this book was oftentimes showcasing Miller's own experience with prayer, perhaps it's good I'm left wanting a little. After all, the moment one begins to think he has mastered the art of praying, he has likely lost it altogether.

I don't want to say too much about the content of the book, because I think you should read it. But I will say, I'm very impressed with how honest Miller is about struggles in prayer, and how our theology of prayer has been warped by false gospels we fall for, and other cultural ways of thinking. It's full of biblical reflection, charts, real-life stories, and questions to ponder. It's a very worthy read. ...more "

progress:

(page 53 of 277)
— May 29, 2025 06:23PM

Jan 07, 2019 12:21PM · see review