Best-selling author Richard J. Foster offers a warm, compelling, and sensitive primer on prayer, a foundational guide for Christian living that helps us to understand, experience, and practice it in its many forms—from the simple prayer of beginning again to unceasing prayer. He clarifies the prayer process, answers common misconceptions, and shows the way into prayers of contemplation, healing, blessing, forgiveness, and rest.
Coming to prayer is like coming home, Foster says. "Nothing feels more right, more like what we are created to be and to do. Yet at the same time we are confronted with great mysteries. Who hasn't struggled with the puzzle of unanswered prayer? Who hasn't wondered how a finite person can commune with the infinite Creator of the universe? Who hasn't questioned whether prayer isn't merely psychological manipulation after all? We do our best, of course, to answer these knotty questions but when all is said and done, there is a sense in which these mysteries remain unanswered and unanswerable . . . At such times we must learn to become comfortable with the mystery."
Foster shows how prayer, as a core spiritual discipline, can move us inward into personal transformation, upward toward intimacy with God, and outward to minister to others. He leads us beyond questions to a deeper understanding and practice of prayer, bringing us closer to God, to ourselves, and to our community.
This comprehensive and compassionate guide explores the many dimensions of prayer, showing you how to:
- How to Pray: Move beyond theory and confusion to a practice that feels like coming home, whether you are beginning again or seeking to go deeper.
- Personal Transformation: Discover the "inward movement" of prayer that fosters profound change, helping to answer common misconceptions and reshape your heart.
- Intimacy with God: Explore the "upward movement" toward a richer relationship, finding answers to questions about doubt, mystery, and communing with the Creator.
- Twenty-One Forms of Prayer: Learn to practice prayer in its many expressions, from Simple Prayer and the Prayer of Examen to Contemplative Prayer, Healing Prayer, and Intercessory Prayer.