The Transforming Power of Prayer: Deepening Your Friendship With God

Rating:
Summary: A transforming friendship
Review: One of the very few recent books on prayer worth reading, Houston's book (formerly titled "The Transforming Friendship") presents prayer as a friendship with God that is personally transforming. Not a touchy-feely friendship and not a self-help transformation, this is the core of the Christian life. Filled with personal and biblical reflections, Houston also draws on his comprehensive knowledge of early church mothers and fathers in this rich book.

Rating:
Summary: A transforming friendship
Review: One of the very few recent books on prayer worth reading, Houston's book (formerly titled "The Transforming Friendship") presents prayer as a friendship with God that is personally transforming. Not a touchy-feely friendship and not a self-help transformation, this is the core of the Christian life. Filled with personal and biblical reflections, Houston also draws on his comprehensive knowledge of early church mothers and fathers in this rich book.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent Spirtual Direction in Book Form
Review: The Transforming Power of Prayer feels like it was written by a spiritual director. There's a good reason for that -- Houston is an academic who has made Christian spirituality his specialty. His love for the subject matter shines through. This book truly takes a spiritual direction-type approach as opposed to, say, a Biblical study approach to prayer.

Be warned: This is a dense, meaty book. Houston has a lot of wonderful things to say, but you can't just zip through this book. You need to chew on what Houston writes and let it sink into you. My favorite chapter is on contemplation and how it differs from Biblical meditation.

This is the second best contemporary book I have read on prayer; only Richard Foster's Prayer: Finding the Heart's True Home surpasses it.

Rating:
Summary: Transforming
Review: This book, The Transforming Power of Prayer; Deepening Your Friendship with God, examines the nature of prayer and how we can come to know the love of the Father through our sustained effort and discipline in prayer. Houston emphasizes that Christian prayer is prayer to the Father, through the Son, by the Holy Spirit. Christian prayer is guided by our right living and right thinking, and true praying means living in a way that is acceptable to God. Each of the fourteen chapters opens with a quote or two from notable theologians, and each chapter ends by quoting a prayer from a theologian. I found it frustrating that these quotes, as well as several statements in the book, were not accompanied by footnotes or references of some kind. Even to give Scriptural references would be helpful. More references would make it easier to pursue further many of the great thoughts that Houston presented. I found much of this book repetitious, and often rambling in places. Still, I found much of Houston's book insightful. I liked chapter four, Entering into Prayer, especially his views on how prayer removes the alienation against God that sin brings into our lives. Prayer works to destroy the evils of sins by uniting us with God, the one person who can save us from the evil that invades our hearts. Prayer is a spiritual warfare against temptations and evil tendencies. I also particularly like sections of chapter twelve, Prayer by the Friends of God, where Houston gives a good definition and contrast between meditation and contemplation. Houston points out throughout his book that prayer is called fourth by the Fathers love, made possible by the grace of Christ, and in union with the Holy Spirit. Prayer than, as the title of the book suggests, is a transforming friendship with the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.