A Book Review from Books At a Glance
by Mason Pell
“The only thing easy about Prayer is giving up.” This is the reality that all Christians face, and this is where Sam Storms begins his book Understanding Prayer: Biblical Foundations and Practical Guidance for Seeking God. Storms states upfront that his book is a confession of his own incompetence in the area of prayer (a sentiment echoed in many authors who take up this same topic). As the subtitle suggests, foundational to all that Storms has to say about prayer is the idea that prayer is first and foremost seeking God himself.
The book is an exhortation and encouragement to prayer based on the Biblical fact that prayer does change things. The thesis of the book, which runs throughout, is this: God will not give apart from prayer what he has ordained to give only by means of prayer. In order to prove this point, the book discusses the life and teachings of Jesus regarding prayer, the Apostle Paul’s prayers in his letters (along with a single chapter discussing the book of Hebrews), and what the book of James says about prayer. The book concludes with some thoughts on challenging prayer passages.
There are two errors that Storms seeks to challenge with this book. First, he challenges those who hold a high view of God’s sovereignty not to give into the temptation to assume that if God is going to do something therefore prayer is unnecessary. Second, he clearly writes to challenge a cessationist view of the Christian life which he finds to be lacking. He urges cessationists to reconsider their position in light of how Scripture addresses prayer and God’s power through those who pray. Any who struggle with these aspects of prayer and God’s work through it could benefit from wrestling through Storms’ arguments.
The chapters are short (not much more than 10 pages per) and not necessarily meant to be read in order. In the introduction Storms downplays the format of the book, encouraging the reader simply to read the chapters that most interest them in any order they choose. Both the brief chapters and open format make this book a great primer on prayer for those young in the Christian faith who have questions about prayer.
Storms does a good job making his case for seeking God being both one of the hardest and yet most crucial aspects of the Christian life. His arguments are compelling and sound. And he repeatedly goes back to the thesis of his book, to the point that at my completion of it I about had it memorized. If you are a Christian who struggles to pray, yet longs to pray more, this is a great book to pick up and read.
With that said, I do have two critiques. First, it would have been great to get some perspective from the Old Testament. There are mentions of it (The Psalms in Part 1, and Elijah in Part 4), but there is no substantial treatment of prayer in the Old Testament. The subtitle could have read “New Testament Foundations” instead of “Biblical Foundations.” The treatment of the New Testament is good, but it would have been nice to get more from what the New Testament authors were reading themselves – the Old Testament. Reading the book, I got the impression that Storms was much more familiar and comfortable working with the New Testament. I can’t help but think that the lack of Old Testament treatment will only reinforce the unfortunate neglect of Israel’s Scriptures in modern Evangelicalism.
The Second critique has to do with some of the chapters getting a little too much into the exegetical weeds. There were some chapters that had much more exegetical insight than practical guidance. This is not to say that such chapters included no applicable points, but my own momentum in reading the book greatly slowed at these points. I can only assume the book’s intended audience would also struggle getting through some of these chapters.
If you are looking for a challenging, yet relatively accessible primer on Christian prayer, this is the book for you. I would highly recommend Understanding Prayer by Sam Storms.
Mason Pell