Hi everyone, here’s my February book review on Don Carson’s classic book on prayer. This is available to borrow from the St Lukes library.
Carson, D. A. A Call to Spiritual Reformation: Priorities from Paul and his Prayers. Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1992.
Summary: A great book to reform your prayer life and understand the place of prayer in Scripture and our lives.
Continuing on a prayer theme for my book reviews, I thought I’d tackle Don Carson’s book A Call to Spiritual Reformation. What I found in it was a great encouragement to not just change something here or there, but a call to actually ‘reform’ my prayer life! Carson realises that prayer can be difficult, admitting: “The truth is that I am a part of what I condemn”. And so he goes about giving real, practical advice in reforming our prayer life based on Paul’s prayers in the Bible.
His book includes discussion in each chapter, based on talks he had prepared on prayer. Therefore, many chapters are like 3-point sermons, giving easy to take away learning, and challenges for your prayer life. There are questions for review and reflection at the end of each chapter, making the book extremely helpful for Bible Study leaders who may want to do a series on prayer.
The book starts off with helpful lessons on prayer (planning to pray, adopting strategies to stop drifting and daydreaming etc.). In a later chapter he looks at excuses we make when we’re not praying, which provides a great challenge for us to pray whether we feel like it or not. He shows that often there is a reason behind our lack of prayer.
Carson then looks at Paul’s letters, in particular the beginning of letters from Paul where he prays for his hearers (2 Thessalonians 1:1-12, Colossians 1:9-14, Philippians 1:9-11). He notes the framework for prayer Paul uses, his priorities when praying for them, and his focus on God as a Sovereign and powerful God. He thinks through private and corporate (public, in church) praying well. I found it helped me find a renewed emphasis on prayer as I read the New Testament, and the great need for us as a church to pray for each other and our community. It also helped me think through how my priorities in prayer need to keep being shaped by God’s priorities (God centred and other person centred, thanking God for his grace seen in others etc.), and how we need to keep praying, unceasingly!
Carson writes so that anyone can pick up the book and reform their prayer life. He uses clear headings and explains things well and convincingly through Scripture, helping us understand the priority of prayer in Scripture and in our lives.