Book Review – Praying The Bible By Donald S. Whitney

Praying The Bible

Praying The Bible By Donald S. Whitney

Synopsis:

All Christians know they should pray, but sometimes it’s hard to know how—especially if the minutes start to drag and our minds start to wander. Offering readers hope, encouragement, and the practical advice they’re looking for, this concise book by professor Donald Whitney outlines a simple, time-tested method that can help transform our prayer lives: praying the words of the Bible. Praying the Bible shows readers how to pray through portions of Scripture one line at a time, helping us stay focused by allowing God’s Word itself to direct our thoughts and words. Simple yet profound, this resource will prove invaluable to all Christians as they seek to commune with their heavenly Father in prayer each and every day. (Taken from GoodReads page)

Review

This is a difficult book to review. On one hand, the topic is important and covered well. On the other hand, there’s not much to say past a few chapters. This really could book a book pamphlet rather than a book just over 100 pages. That isn’t a slight against the author either.

Whitney lays out the issue – you seem to pray the same thing over and over and then it becomes a routine rather than a relationship. Check. He then lays out the thing to do – pray the Bible and a good place to start is Psalms. The most important part is whether one should be concerned about taking the verses out of the context if you’re praying. The nuance covered here is the most important after the “pray the Bible” party and his answer makes logical and practical sense. The answer is pretty much, don’t worry about it too much. You don’t want to pray heresy or just go in wildly but the goal is to get out of the rut of boring prayers and being inspired by the text to prayer is exactly the goal.

From there, he spends a couple of chapters going through examples of praying the Psalms and other parts of the Scripture. This is really just a review of what he’s already done and made his point well enough in the preceding chapters. Finally, there are a few review and example chapters that seem superfluous.

So, overall it is a good book and really straightforward. However, if it is so straightforward that it’s not worth the book format unless you really need to be walked through the process. It’s a hard review for sure. If this review didn’t provide you with enough details then pick up the book. If not, go do it. It really helps and makes a lot of sense.

Final Grade