A book review of Prayer Revolution: Rebuilding Church and City Through Prayer by John Smed
Stars: ***
Moody Publishers (2020)
Christian Nonfiction
272 pages
Disclosure: I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. This post contains affliate links.
Summary: Most prayers are constricted ones. They’re prayers that only focus on one part of the Lord’s Prayer: “give us our daily bread.” They’re usually focused on self and envision God as a heavenly caretaker. Disruptive prayers, on the other hand, are powerful, uncommon, and deeply biblical. They focus on God rather than self, seek to advance the kingdom, and submit all things to God. They are also prayed with a profound belief that prayer actually accomplishes something.
When we pray disruptive prayers, that’s when the revolution begins. This book shows you how to equip leaders, fuel kingdom movements, and do real damage to the powers of darkness in the here and now. But most of all, discover how your own heart will be transformed as you begin to see how much bigger prayer, and God, is than you ever thought possible.
Prayer Revolution
This book is about making changes in our cities and churches through prayer. Now that I’ve read the whole book, it makes a lot of good points that I will keep in mind when I pray but at first it rubbed me the wrong way.
“When prayer neglects Christ’s kingdom priorities, it becomes constricted and suffocates under a burden of present urgencies. We call this default prayer, in which our prayers focus on a random set of personal problems and health-related challenges. This kind of prayer accomplishes little transformation for those who pray and little for the world in which we live.”
Prayer Revolution pg 39
This paragraph, and the others that follow, made me feel bad for the way I pray. I pray like I’m talking to God as a friend and father and I ask while I do ask for forgiveness and express thankfulness when it comes time to ask for supplication I ask for what would be good for me and my family, and what I want. I try to add some prayers for the greater good in there as well. For example if I have a migraine, I will pray for relief but I also take the time to pray for others who have migraines.
I was mad reading the book, as the author says we shouldn’t pray this way most of the time but should be praying mostly for our cities and churches. As I said, when it’s all explained, I understand where the author is coming from. However it comes off a little harsh at that one point.
The book breaks down the Lord’s Prayer to show us the seven priorities and how God Answers our prayers. This is a precursor to what will be another book by John Smed, Journey in Prayer.
Throughout the book John shows bible verses that support what he is saying about prayer and it all makes sense. He also gives examples from history in between chapters which will appeal to history buffs.
Although it doesn’t say this anywhere in the book, I think this book is best suited for bible study or personal study by a Minster or Reverend.
Buy Prayer Revolution at Amazon.com and help support the blog.
Find Prayer Revolution at Goodreads
About Kathleen
