Prayer is one of the most integral disciplines of the Christian life. It’s the practice of humbly approaching the throne of God, communing with our Heavenly Father, praising Him for His goodness, and petitioning Him to provide for our needs and the needs of those around us. We all know how important it is for us, as believers, to pray and to pray often. However, we’re not always that good at it.
Many times, we’ll sit or kneel in a humble posture before our mighty God, ready to bring our prayers and petitions before Him, but we simply can’t think of what to pray for. There are also times when what we pray for seems rather frivolous in the grand scheme of things (I know I’m not the only one who’s prayed for good days, restful nights, and to have success with college exams and work projects).
What is the secret to praying well? Truth be told, it’s not that big of a secret. Jesus clearly laid out how His followers ought to pray and what they should pray for during His famous Sermon on the Mount, and the prayer example He gave has since been dubbed “The Lord’s Prayer.” In Kevin DeYoung’s latest book of the same name, he explores this prayer and explains how Christians can utilize it in their own prayer time.
In The Lord’s Prayer, DeYoung starts at the very beginning—what is prayer and why is it important. He makes it clear that the practice of prayer is for everyone who claims to be a follower of Christ and argues that one cannot be a Christian and not pray. As I hinted at earlier, prayer is not merely asking God for what you want in a way that guarantees a positive answer. Prayer is an act of communion with our Heavenly Father. In his signature simple prose, DeYoung writes,
“Prayer is not a formula. Prayer is not an incantation. Prayer is not a recipe. Prayer is a relationship.”[1]
As is suggested by its title, this book focuses specifically on the Lord’s Prayer that Jesus presents in Matthew 6. DeYoung argues that this prayer should be the model prayer we imitate when we pray to God.
“Every Christian prayer ought to be informed and shaped by the Lord’s Prayer. This is our model, and it teaches us what to pray for and, just as importantly, to whom we are praying.”[2]
Throughout the rest of the book, DeYoung walks through and exposits each phrase found in the Lord’s Prayer. Starting with “Our Father in heaven,” DeYoung shows his readers that the God we pray to is not just holy, omnipotent, and sovereign. He is also kind and good, and He longs to hear the thoughts, desires, and worries of His children. As the Lord’s Prayer leads us to talk to Him about our desires, our needs, our debts, and our temptations, we can discover that God cares about us. He is a big God, active in every ounce of creation and worthy of all glory and praise. And yet, He is never too busy or too important to lend an ear to our cries. The end of this model prayer reminds us that God doesn’t exist to bend to our will or grant all our wishes. Instead, we exist to worship and glorify Him, and we ought to join in with our Christian brothers and sisters in declaring,
“For yours is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory forever. Amen.”
As usual, Kevin DeYoung did an excellent job with this book. DeYoung is one of my favorite authors because he states his points in a clear and concise manner, and his writing holds a certain beauty and truth without the need for flowery language. The Lord’s Prayer is only about 100 pages long, which makes it a very short, simple, and easy read. But if you want to go deeper, it does include study questions in the back that you can work through after each chapter.
Overall, I really enjoyed reading this book, especially the magnificent prayer DeYoung included in the last few pages. If you been looking for a book that will help you better understand how to pray and what to pray for, you should definitely pick up a copy of The Lord’s Prayer.
*As an Amazon Associate, I can earn commissions from qualifying purchases made through the affiliate links on this page at no extra cost to you.
[1] Kevin DeYoung, The Lord’s Prayer: Learning from Jesus on What, Why, and How to Pray (Wheaton: Crossway, 2022), 22.
[2] Ibid., 27.
