Praying To Change Your Life

What do you say when you pray? It is a question that I have been asked over and over again during the past 14 years that I have pursued the calling to study and teach prayer. The question does not solely come from beginning pray-ers, but from Christians in all stages of their prayer lives and walks with the Lord. The purpose of this book is to answer the question; to take the mystery out of prayer; and to empower pray-ers with the information they need to pray effectively. By the end of this book, readers will understand why we are called to pray and will have the tools to more than adequately answer the call. Ultimately, they will know how to pray prayers that produce God s plans for themselves, their businesses, their community, and their world.

In this searing meditation on the bonds of family and the allure of extremist faith, one of today’s most celebrated Christian writers recounts his unexpected journey from a strict fundamentalist upbringing to a life of compassion and grace—a revelatory memoir that “invites comparison to Hillbilly Elegy” (Publishers Weekly, starred review). “Searing, heartrending . . . This stunning tale reminds us that the only way to keep living is to ask God for the impossible: love, forgiveness, and hope.”—Kate Bowler, New York Times bestselling author of Everything Happens for a Reason Raised by an impoverished widow who earned room and board as a Bible teacher in 1950s Atlanta, Philip Yancey and his brother, Marshall, found ways to venture out beyond the confines of their eight-foot-wide trailer. But when Yancey was in college, he uncovered a shocking secret about his father’s death—a secret that began to illuminate the motivations that drove his mother to extreme, often hostile religious convictions and a belief that her sons had been ordained for a divine cause. Searching for answers, Yancey dives into his family origins, taking us on an evocative journey from the backwoods of the Bible Belt to the bustling streets of Philadelphia; from trailer parks to church sanctuaries; from family oddballs to fire-and-brimstone preachers and childhood awakenings through nature, music, and literature. In time, the weight of religious and family pressure sent both sons on opposite paths—one toward healing from the impact of what he calls a “toxic faith,” the other into a self-destructive spiral. Where the Light Fell is a gripping family narrative set against a turbulent time in post–World War II America, shaped by the collision of Southern fundamentalism with the mounting pressures of the civil rights movement and Sixties-era forces of social change. In piecing together his fragmented personal history and his search for redemption, Yancey gives testament to the enduring power of our hunger for truth and the possibility of faith rooted in grace instead of fear. “I truly believe this is the one book I was put on earth to write,” says Yancey. “So many of the strands from my childhood—racial hostility, political division, culture wars—have resurfaced in modern form. Looking back points me forward.”

First published in 1945, this book by Christian author Stella Terrill Mann is a series of case histories of experiments with prayer, with suggested programs whereby the reader may make his own experiments and change his own life through prayer. “This book has come to you. Since nothing can come to you except that which belongs to you or that which you need for your growth, accept it as an answer to a need, and do not let the book go until it gives you a blessing.”—Stella Terrill Mann, Preface “This book really did change my life....If you could read only one book on prayer, I would unhesitatingly urge you to choose this one.”—Marjorie Holmes, bestselling author of I’ve Got to Talk to Somebody, God

“A Simple, Life-Changing Prayer is a valuable and thoughtful book, and a very practical one, which can be put with confidence into the hands of anyone who wishes to learn to pray the Examen and to find the presence and action of God in their lives.” —Andrea Kelly, Thinking Faith Sometimes we can experience prayer as formal, dry, and repetitious. But what might happen if we discovered a simple prayer that changed all that? In A Simple, Life-Changing Prayer, Jim Manney introduces Christians to a 500-year-old form of prayer that dramatically altered his perception of prayer and the way he prayed. The prayer is the Examen, which St. Ignatius Loyola developed for the purpose of nurturing a reflective habit of mind that is constantly attuned to God’s presence. What makes the prayer so powerful is its capacity to dispel any notion that God is somewhere “up there,” detached from our day-to-day tasks and concerns. Instead, the examen leads us into a relationship with a God who desires to be personally caught up in the lives of those whom he created.

After nearly four decades of ministry, Andrew Wommack has discovered some important truths about prayer. His prayer life is much different than it was thirty years ago and the results have dramatically improved! You may be asking many of the same questions Andrew once did. Is prayer my Christian duty? Is prayer primarily about asking God to meet my needs and the needs of others? Is God's answer to my prayer based on the degree of my humility and sincerity? Is answered prayer a sovereign decision of God or do I have the ability to influence Him? Clear, scriptural answers to these questions and more could significantly change the way you pray. These principles may not be the only way to pray, but if you're not getting the results you desire, consider changing directions; maybe there is A Better Way to Pray.

Stormie Omartian's The Prayer That Changes Everything (more than 320,000 copies sold) continues to touch hundreds of thousands of readers' lives. These little prayer reminders will encourage readers to turn to God for every need and provide an easy and convenient way to help them grow in worship and praise.

This resource is a complete introduction to one of the most mysterious prayers of Eastern Christianity, The Jesus Prayer. A conversational question-and-answer format takes the reader through practical steps for adopting this profound practice in everyday life.