Life Changing Prayers by Michael Yousseff

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Life-Changing Prayers: How God Displays His Power to Ordinary People

How God Displays His Power to Ordinary People

Taking the prayers of seven Biblical characters: Eliezer, Hannah, Jonah, Habakkuk, David, Daniel and Mary, Michael provides a formula maybe for a good prayer life.

Let me start with a quote from the chapter on Mary, a prayer of praise for the way God was blessing her. And in reality, in her day and culture, blessed is probably not the way most people would have described her life. And yet, she gave thanks and praised God in the midst of that. That says a lot for Mary and I think it says a lot for her parents as well, especially since Mary is believed to have been a pretty young teenager.

"Show me a person whose prayer life is focused on magnifying the Lord, and I will show you a person who is contented and full of joy. Show me a person whose prayer life is consumed with glorifying God, and  I will show you a truly happy person. Show me a person whose prayer life is focused on seeking the righteousness of God, and I  will show you a truly satisfied Christian."

I think that quote says a lot. Full dedication to prayer as  a two-way street is powerful.

I will have to say that I while there were some really good points in this book, it didn't really resonate with me. Possibly because in the first chapter, the prayer of Eliezer, I got the first vibe, rightly or wrongly, that if we prayer correctly with the right fervency and persistence and with the right ingredients, then our prayers will always be answered. I guess I seem to prayer incorrectly too many times then, because it doesn't seem that my prayers are always answered. Yes, you could make an argument that they have been answered with a no or with healing in heaven, etc. but...  So that vibe made me a bit more critical of the rest of the book and I couldn't fully engage in it. I do really like the quote I shared and think there is so much truth and value in those couple of sentences.

I received this book from Baker Books and was not required to write a positive review.

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