Book Review - Talking to God: Prayer by 9Marks

Talking to God: Prayer by 9Marks, part of the Healthy Church Study Guides

With the focus on spiritual disciplines each month, I had hoped to bring you this review during the month in which we also looked at prayer. Alas, that was last month and here we are. No problem, this will remain here for those who seek it in the future are well.

This Bible study, Talking to God: Prayer, is a short 6-session study by 9Marks. This is a ministry that seeks to help churches be healthy and produces a number of studies and books. It seems this one in particular is perhaps a companion to another book, or at least includes some excerpts from another book by the ministry. It does standalone, and no other resource is needed. There is a simple teacher’s note at the end which addresses the questions for each of the sessions.

The study strengths

The study is broken into churches should pray, confess, lament, petition, praise and be united. Each of these is given an introduction and a passage to read from the Bible and accompanied by several discussion or reflection questions. Each session can comfortably be completed by a small group in one sitting. It offers a good overview of each type of prayer that it addresses and does a good job describing them and distinguishing between the types.

Questionable presentation

I found that the introductions for each week were more a collection of things that other people had said rather than a comment on the Bible passage or practice of prayer. It offers a decent description each time, but the quotations at times were long and it made the book a bit fragmented in tone. The readings varied in length and were often left for interpretation. Some questions were a bit speculative or introduced another Bible passage to read.

I struggled with the second week, confession, as it also introduced readings which included penance. Yet, it was not God-given penance but rather a response that man suggested would help. The passage of Ezra 9 and 10 without discussing the fact that the Israelites may have made questionable choices as part of the prayer and penance (in addition to having gone against God’s ordinance in the first place) made this session challenging. The inclusion of a passage describing penance was also troubling given that God has never asked for us to make things up to him. This example or Bible passage was a confusing way to address confession.

2/5 stars for inconsistency

Talking to God: Prayer offers a basic overview of prayer types, but has a varied tone and confession is presented in a confusing manner. As such, it is difficult to recommend it, except perhaps as one resource among many.