Words with God: Trading Boring, Empty Prayer for Real Conversation by Addison Bevere

My edition: Kindle (Provided by Netgalley)
Standalone
Genre: Christian, Non-fiction, Prayer
Published: April 18, 2023
Rating: 4 stars

Synopsis:

For most of us, prayer is a struggle. We know we should pray. It would be good for us–help us be more grounded, more connected to God. But in our hurried lives, slowing down to pray can feel like a cosmic waste of time. Do our prayers even matter? What, if anything, happens when we pray? Are we having words with God or just words with ourselves?
 
In this thoughtful book, Addison Bevere takes you into and through the tension of prayer–the struggles, the doubts, the answers–to the place where God makes himself real to you. 
 
Tired of boring, empty, transactional prayer? This is the book for you.

Review:

A huge thank you to Netgalley and Revell for gifting me this ARC for an honest review.

The reverberations are fun to manipulate, at least for a while, but eventually it gets old listening to yourself on repeat. Conversations, by definition, are supposed to involve two or more people, so it’s only natural for us to want someone else to get involved.

To be honest, I am one who struggles with prayer. At times, I find myself not enjoying that I get to communicate with the Creator. I tend to look at it as a chore. A ritual. A tradition. I take it for granted. I want to be able to get deeper into my prayer life. I’m tired of looking at it like I have and realize the beauty of being able to take anything to the Creator and converse with him.

It’s in the canyon that we figure out that a “prayer life” is much more than a spiritual exercise, it’s the higher consciousness that reorders and intergrates life, reclaiming every bit of living (and us) as holy and necessary to God’s purposes and design.

This is my first Addison Bevere book. I loved his writing style. I have so many highlights. I loved what he said about prayer. I think God knew I needed this book because I was in a prayer rut. I thoroughly enjoyed it and will be buying a physical copy.

This book made me stop and think am I praying because that is what I was told to do or am I praying to get closer to God? I love him pointing out that normally we pray for something be we don’t put any action to it. His example was praying to be healthy but eating unhealthy and not taking care of our bodies. Most times the world treats God like a genie but that is not what prayer is. Addison does a great job at pointing out what prayer is and how we should pray. Highly recommending this book