July 15, 2017

The Essential Guide to Prayer by Dutch Sheets

Dutch Sheets has an incredible ability to speak about prayer in a way that anyone can understand. Whether someone works in prayer ministry and is seeking to increase their knowledge or someone is exploring what prayer is about, The Essential Guide to Prayer is an excellent guide for both.

Many people struggle with why or how to pray. Either they don't know what to say or it seems to be too much of an effort. Sheet notes, “As you spend time with God, you'll begin to think like him, which will allow you to pray according to his heart and will.”  In other words, a meaningful prayer life comes from spending time getting to know God through his word which is scripture.


Prayer is something that Christians are commanded to do. There are numerous scriptures where God has invited people to work with him in what he wants to accomplish on this Earth.  God can still work miracles - even today - and wants to do so with his people.  “Using the same methods today will produce the same results as the Early Church experienced, because Christ ‘is the same yesterday and today and forever’. (Hebrews 13:8)”

One of the biggest takeaways here is the necessity of persevering through prayer. I agree with Sheets that an active prayer life takes time and energy. This is tough in a culture where we expect everything within seconds. So we have to go against the grain of the world in order to pray the way that God has directed us.

This book is a good resource for those in ministry as well as for people who want guidance for their personal prayer time.  The end of each chapter has thoughtful questions to cement what was learned or use in a group discussion. I often give away review copies but this is one I plan to hold onto and read again.

I received this book from Baker Publishing Group in exchange for an honest review.

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