Prayer: Communing with God in Everything--Collected Insights from A. W. Tozer

"I will pick up almost any book that can teach me something about prayer. This book challenged my thoughts and beliefs about prayer in so many ways, I may have to reread it in order to get the full impact of what the authors have shared.

W L Seaver has collected and compiled A W Tozer's writings on prayer and added his own thoughts to each chapter. Each chapter is a challenge in and of itself, one of the most important concepts is that we have to INTIMATELY know God for our prayers to have real conversation value. Our prayers also must be preceded and followed by complete obedience. One of the most significant changes to my prayer beliefs is that God has three answers to our prayers--yes, no, wait (or "I have something better"). That takes prayer down to a trite grocery list where we lay out our desires and then walk away from our prayer thinking we have connected with God. Nothing is further from the truth. For example (and this happened to me a couple of weeks ago), we go to church, see people we know, ask how they are doing, and walk away before getting an answer. We feel we have made a connection when we barely acknowledged the others. Too often our prayer lives are like this. And a conversation MUST include talking and listening. We HAVE to listen to God to be able to say that we have prayed.

Seaver pointed this out with a quote that is older than Tozer--

Tell God all that is in your heart, as one unloads one’s heart, its pleasures and its pains, to a dear friend. Tell Him your troubles, that He may comfort you; tell Him your joys, that He may sober them; tell Him your longings, the He may purify them; tell Him your dislikes, that He may help you conquer them, talk to Him of your temptations, that He may shield you from them; lay bare your indifference to good, your depraved tastes for evil, you instability. Tell Him how self-love makes you unjust to others, how vanity tempts you to be insincere, how pride disguises you to yourself and others.

If you pour out all you weaknesses, needs, and troubles there will be no lack of what to say. You will never exhaust the subject. It is continually being renewed. People who have no secrets from each other never want for subjects of conversation. They do not weigh their words, for there is nothing to be held back; neither do they seek for something to say. They talk out of the abundance of the heart, without consideration they say what they think. Blessed are they who attain to such familiar, unreserved, conversation with God.

Francois Fenelon

This is a five star book that I cannot recommend highly enough. It can change your life.

My thanks to Moody Publishers for allowing me to read and review this book."

Reviewed by Becky Guinn on NetGalley, Feb 12, 2016

"I was super-excited to get a chance to review A.W. Tozer's 'new' book on prayer. (Can I just say I'm so thankful that new Tozer books continue to be released. Tozer may have died fifty years ago, but he's still ever-relevant, in my opinion.) This book gathers together Tozer's thoughts on prayer. Chapters come from his sermons, articles, or books. The first section--containing twenty-two chapters--is called 'Tozer's Writings,' and the second section--containing six chapters--is called 'Tozer's Sermons.' The first section, if I recall correctly, the readings are perhaps a bit shorter, but, contain bonus material. Summaries are provided for what you've just read in that chapter, and Tozer's ideas are discussed and explored further. These chapters also include discussion questions. The second section, the readings are definitely longer. These chapters all come from sermons, not books published before or after his death.

Chapters include:

The Whole Life Must Pray The Sacrament of Living, part one and two To Be Right, We Must Think Right Prayer: No Substitute for Obedience The Importance of Prayer in God's Eternal Work Born after Midnight Praying Without Condition The Power of Silence Dangers in Unanswered Prayer What Profit In Prayer?

Three Ways To Get What We Want Prayer Changes People and Things On Wrestling in Prayer Praying Till We Pray God's Selfhood and Prayer Truth has Two Wings Honesty in Prayer Measuring Spirituality by Public Prayers The Best Things Come Hard A Word to the Men about the Women Does God Always Answer Prayer?

Prepare by Prayer, part one and two Believing Prayer In Everything by Prayer, part one, two, and three

I would recommend this book for several reasons. One, I love A.W. Tozer. I do. I love him for his zeal, his passion, his stubborn clinging to the Bible as the undeniable WORD OF GOD. To read Tozer is to meet a man who loved God with mighty zeal. Tozer didn't seem to care about being popular or being well-liked. He cared about speaking the truth--as he saw it--and for Tozer, the source of truth was without a doubt, the Bible. Tozer was upset by things he saw: in the church, in society--and he spoke out about it. He clung to hope, however, that men and women could and would be transformed by the power of God, that godliness and holiness was always possible because our God is a big God, and his promises are true. Two, in addition to having a special appreciation for Tozer, I enjoy reading books on prayer. I think prayer remains a tricky subject being both simple and complex. I think believers will always need another book on prayer. And this one is worth reading. It has plenty of thought-provoking ideas in it. You may love or hate Tozer, but, you can't deny he makes you THINK."

Reviewed by Becky Laney on NetGalley, Jan 22, 2016