"A Praying Life" by Paul Miller

Whoa! Paul Miller's newest book, A Praying Life, is hot off the press and is revolutionizing my understanding of prayer... and what it means to live as a Christian, or better, as a dearly loved child of the Father. Get this book. Read it, and re-read it. Wow.

Here are some nuggets from the first few chapters:

• "Prayer is not the central theme of this book. Getting to know a Person... is the center."

• For Jesus "prayer is about relationship. When he prays, he is not performing a duty; he is getting close to his Father."

• "Personal prayer is one of the last great bastions of legalism."

• "How do we structure our adult conversations? We don't... Why would prayer be any different? After all, God is a person."

• "We received Jesus because we were weak, and that's how we follow him... We forget that helplessness is how the Christian life works."

• "Prayer is bringing our helplessness to Jesus."
  

• "Strong Christians do pray more, but they pray more because they realize how weak they really are."

• "Weakness is the channel that allows us to access grace."

• "You don't need self-discipline to pray continuously; you just need to be poor in spirit."

This is gold I tell you. GOLD!