Pray with Your Eyes Open
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In Pray with Your Eyes Open, Richard L. Pratt Jr. offers a practical guide to cultivating greater intentionality, focus, and attentiveness in prayer.
Communication and Attention
Prayer is defined as a believer’s communication with God. But prayer involves more than simply bringing our requests before him. It requires an attitude of dependence, like that of a servant who recognizes his need for his Master. Pratt encourages readers to approach God with humility and dependence.
What I found most helpful is its emphasis on the variety of ways we can address God in prayer. We can grow in our prayer lives by considering the different names, titles, metaphors, and attributes Scripture uses to describe him. As we do so, we learn to appreciate more deeply who God is and how he has revealed himself to us.
Pratt also emphasizes the importance of remembering God’s actions and providence. Reflecting on what God has done throughout history and in our own lives helps us cultivate gratitude and trust in his continued faithfulness. Along with remembering his works, we are encouraged to dwell on his presence, learning to direct our attention toward the God who is always with us.
Expression and Urgency
I was most interested to learn the biblical pattern of expressing our honest attitudes before God. Even when we approach God with negative attitudes, we can express our trust in him and remain open to his response, seeking to receive his will with gratitude.
The book also explores the persuasive urgency of prayer and the practice of crafting arguments before God. We learn to pray thoughtfully by grounding our appeals in who God is and what he has revealed about himself.
One of the book’s practical strengths is its opportunities to put these principles into practice. Discussion questions and exercises, including fill-in-the-blank prompts, guide readers in developing their prayers. Pray with Your Eyes Open will help you develop a richer and more thoughtful prayer life.
I received a media copy of Pray with Your Eyes Open (Amazon, 5% off your entire order always at Westminster Bookstore with code DIVEINDIGDEEP) and this is my honest review. Find more of my book reviews and follow Dive In, Dig Deep on Instagram - my account dedicated to Bibles and books to see the beauty of the Bible and the role of reading in the Christian life. To read all of my book reviews and to receive all of the free eBooks I find on the web, subscribe to my free newsletter.