Here are a very few books on prayer. It has been a habit of mine to read at least one book on prayer and the devotional life a year; often I will read several in a year. The key to these books being of value is, not just to read them but to put their principles into practice.
J. Gary Millar, Calling on the Name of the Lord; A biblical theology of prayer
A great many books on prayer focus on the “how to of prayer,” or motivational prayer books filled with examples of how to have an effective prayer life. Some books deal with the nature of the private versus public nature of prayer; indeed, the lists of subject matter on prayer books is quite lengthy. There are, however, few academic books that thoroughly treat the theology of prayer. Thematically Millar’s book focuses on “prayer that asks God to deliver on his covenantal promises.” Building on the Genesis 4.26 recorded that the people began calling on the name of the Lord to fulfill his covenant promise in Genesis 3.15, Millar traces prayer throughout the Old Testament and then demonstrates the New Testament connection with this covenantal nature of prayer. It is helpful that these prayers are reproduced in the book so that the reader does not have to be constantly opening his or her Bible to follow along with the author’s argument. To date, it is the best book I come across on the prayers of the Bible.
Sinclair B. Ferguson, John Owen on the Christian Life
While this is not strictly a book on prayer alone, the Christian life is the basis for all prayer life (cp. The Life of God in the Soul of Man, by Henry Scougal) and you will find this volume an immensely helpful read. Owen knows the depth of sin into which the human heart can be become mired down, but he knows too the humanly unreachable heights of grace that are attained by the effectual salvific work of the sin-bearing Christ and imputed to the children of God.
Phyllis Tickle, The Divine Hours
If your want prayer to be woven into the fabric of your life, then you will find this book to be a great springboard for this spiritual discipline. There are three books in this series but my favorite is “The Divine Hours: Prayers for Autumn and Wintertime” (I do not limit my reading of it to those two seasons). I particularly like reading the compline just before going to sleep. Sometimes my wife and I will read the compline and then finish the night holding hands and praying for our friends. The Book of Common Prayer and the writings of the Church Fathers are the primary sources for this wonderfully devotional book.
Samuel Storms, Reaching God’s Ear
I am not sure if this book is still in print (if not you can probably find it as a used book on the internet), but it was a great help to me. Storms confesses that the motivation for the book was the guilt that prayer was less than central in his life. It is personal need that often generates an increase is spiritual growth. So too, with the felt need for an enriched fellowship with God. If you can find this book you will not be disappointed with it.
Martin Luther Luther’s Prayers
This short book provides an excellent guide to incorporating Scripture in prayer
Andrew Murray, The Believer’s Prayer Life
This is a classic devotional book on prayer that has the added advantage of illustrating the Christian’s prayer life through men like George Muller, Hudson Taylor, and the apostle Paul.
John Bunyan, Prayer
Most Christians are familiar with with Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress or is wonderful book Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners, but they are liking to find his book on prayer equally, profitable. How could one not benefit from his experiences in prayer while confined to the Bedford jail?
Eugene Peterson, Earth & Altar: The Community of Prayer in a Self-Bound Society
Peterson introduces the idea of the community in prayer. Consider some of his chapter titles: Unself-Made: Psalm 87; Unself-Centered: Psalm 110; Unself-Help: Psalm 46; Unself-Righteous: Psalm 14. He provides the added benefit of teaching readers how to use Scripture in prayer.
W. Bingham Hunter, The God who Hears
Hunter approaches prayer from the perspective of God. It is an easy read that answers many of the common questions confronting Christians, for example: “What is God like?”; “Can Prayer Change God’s Mind?”; and “How Should We Pray to Him?.”
Donald Bloesch, The Struggle of Prayer
“The disciplines of devotion have receded into the background as people seek instant salvation through prescribed and easily learned techniques. The often painful and laborious struggle to attain spiritual maturity in Christ that characterized the great saints of the past (both Catholic and Protestant) is singularly absent from the current fascination with spirituality” (p.11). This exceptional book is for those serious about their prayer life. Bloesch brings balance to the prophetic and the mystical elements of prayer. Some people find the book a little difficult, but all will find it worth the effort.
Donald Bloesch, The Crisis of Piety
If you need conviction and a bit of direction, this is a good book to read. “The motto of the Christian faith is in Anselm’s words ‘faith seeking understanding,’ and this entails rigorous study not only of the Bible but of doctrinal and devotional works as well” (p. 56). Written in the sixties it remains an important commentary on the necessity of piety in the life of the mature Christian. It is both scholarly and deeply devotional.
Ole Hallesby, Prayer
Hallesby is practical and inspirational: “Nothing makes us so bold in prayer as when we can look into the eye of God and say to Him, ‘Thou knowest that I am not praying for personal advantage, nor to avoid hardship, nor that my own will in any way should be done, but only for this, that Thy name might be glorified’” (p. 131).
Thomas Watson, Heaven Taken by Storm
Watson was one of the authors of the Westminster Confession of Faith and a devout Puritan preacher. He was renown for his extemporaneous prayers. He died in 1686 while praying in secret. “We must offer violence to heaven in regard to the difficulty of the work – taking a kingdom. First, we must be pulled out of another kingdom, the kingdom of darkness (Acts 26:18). To get out of the state of nature is hard, and when that is done and we are cut off from the wild olive and implanted into Christ, there is still new work to do: new sins to mortify, new temptations to resist, new graces to quicken. A Christian must not only get faith, but go ‘from faith to faith’ (Rom. 1:17). This will not be done without violence.”
Stanley Grenz, The Cry for the Kingdom
This is a good book on the eschatological nature of prayer, which is at the heart of intercessory prayer. Jesus taught His disciples to prayer Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Prayer is pleading with God for the kingdom reality to be a present reality. “The Bible repeatedly suggests that prayer brings a response from God, and not merely a change in the will of the petitioner. ‘Whatever the believer asks in faith will be received’ seems to be a pervasive promise of the New Testament. Therefore, any suggestion that petition is solely the task of molding one’s will to the divine will appears truncated, when measured against the total perspective of the biblical writings” (p. 33).
S. D. Gordon, Quiet Talks on Prayer
A well known treatise on prayer by the famous general who died in the Sudan defending the city of Khartoum. Gordon’s writing is colored by his military background and gives a his book an interesting perspective. He writes in response to the question, does prayer influence God?: “Prayer does not influence God. Prayer surely does influence God. It does not influence his purpose. It does influence His action” (p. 40). Gordon was not a theologian and there are some weaknesses to his book, but it is nonetheless worth the reading.
J. Gary Millar, Calling on the Name of the Lord; A biblical theology of prayer
A great many books on prayer focus on the “how to of prayer,” or motivational prayer books filled with examples of how to have an effective prayer life. Some books deal with the nature of the private versus public nature of prayer; indeed, the lists of subject matter on prayer books is quite lengthy. There are, however, few academic books that thoroughly treat the theology of prayer. Thematically Millar’s book focuses on “prayer that asks God to deliver on his covenantal promises.” Building on the Genesis 4.26 recorded that the people began calling on the name of the Lord to fulfill his covenant promise in Genesis 3.15, Millar traces prayer throughout the Old Testament and then demonstrates the New Testament connection with this covenantal nature of prayer. It is helpful that these prayers are reproduced in the book so that the reader does not have to be constantly opening his or her Bible to follow along with the author’s argument. To date, it is the best book I come across on the prayers of the Bible.
Sinclair B. Ferguson, John Owen on the Christian Life
While this is not strictly a book on prayer alone, the Christian life is the basis for all prayer life (cp. The Life of God in the Soul of Man, by Henry Scougal) and you will find this volume an immensely helpful read. Owen knows the depth of sin into which the human heart can be become mired down, but he knows too the humanly unreachable heights of grace that are attained by the effectual salvific work of the sin-bearing Christ and imputed to the children of God.
Phyllis Tickle, The Divine Hours
If your want prayer to be woven into the fabric of your life, then you will find this book to be a great springboard for this spiritual discipline. There are three books in this series but my favorite is “The Divine Hours: Prayers for Autumn and Wintertime” (I do not limit my reading of it to those two seasons). I particularly like reading the compline just before going to sleep. Sometimes my wife and I will read the compline and then finish the night holding hands and praying for our friends. The Book of Common Prayer and the writings of the Church Fathers are the primary sources for this wonderfully devotional book.
Samuel Storms, Reaching God’s Ear
I am not sure if this book is still in print (if not you can probably find it as a used book on the internet), but it was a great help to me. Storms confesses that the motivation for the book was the guilt that prayer was less than central in his life. It is personal need that often generates an increase is spiritual growth. So too, with the felt need for an enriched fellowship with God. If you can find this book you will not be disappointed with it.
Martin Luther Luther’s Prayers
This short book provides an excellent guide to incorporating Scripture in prayer
Andrew Murray, The Believer’s Prayer Life
This is a classic devotional book on prayer that has the added advantage of illustrating the Christian’s prayer life through men like George Muller, Hudson Taylor, and the apostle Paul.
John Bunyan, Prayer
Most Christians are familiar with with Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress or is wonderful book Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners, but they are liking to find his book on prayer equally, profitable. How could one not benefit from his experiences in prayer while confined to the Bedford jail?
Eugene Peterson, Earth & Altar: The Community of Prayer in a Self-Bound Society
Peterson introduces the idea of the community in prayer. Consider some of his chapter titles: Unself-Made: Psalm 87; Unself-Centered: Psalm 110; Unself-Help: Psalm 46; Unself-Righteous: Psalm 14. He provides the added benefit of teaching readers how to use Scripture in prayer.
W. Bingham Hunter, The God who Hears
Hunter approaches prayer from the perspective of God. It is an easy read that answers many of the common questions confronting Christians, for example: “What is God like?”; “Can Prayer Change God’s Mind?”; and “How Should We Pray to Him?.”
Donald Bloesch, The Struggle of Prayer
“The disciplines of devotion have receded into the background as people seek instant salvation through prescribed and easily learned techniques. The often painful and laborious struggle to attain spiritual maturity in Christ that characterized the great saints of the past (both Catholic and Protestant) is singularly absent from the current fascination with spirituality” (p.11). This exceptional book is for those serious about their prayer life. Bloesch brings balance to the prophetic and the mystical elements of prayer. Some people find the book a little difficult, but all will find it worth the effort.
Donald Bloesch, The Crisis of Piety
If you need conviction and a bit of direction, this is a good book to read. “The motto of the Christian faith is in Anselm’s words ‘faith seeking understanding,’ and this entails rigorous study not only of the Bible but of doctrinal and devotional works as well” (p. 56). Written in the sixties it remains an important commentary on the necessity of piety in the life of the mature Christian. It is both scholarly and deeply devotional.
Ole Hallesby, Prayer
Hallesby is practical and inspirational: “Nothing makes us so bold in prayer as when we can look into the eye of God and say to Him, ‘Thou knowest that I am not praying for personal advantage, nor to avoid hardship, nor that my own will in any way should be done, but only for this, that Thy name might be glorified’” (p. 131).
Thomas Watson, Heaven Taken by Storm
Watson was one of the authors of the Westminster Confession of Faith and a devout Puritan preacher. He was renown for his extemporaneous prayers. He died in 1686 while praying in secret. “We must offer violence to heaven in regard to the difficulty of the work – taking a kingdom. First, we must be pulled out of another kingdom, the kingdom of darkness (Acts 26:18). To get out of the state of nature is hard, and when that is done and we are cut off from the wild olive and implanted into Christ, there is still new work to do: new sins to mortify, new temptations to resist, new graces to quicken. A Christian must not only get faith, but go ‘from faith to faith’ (Rom. 1:17). This will not be done without violence.”
Stanley Grenz, The Cry for the Kingdom
This is a good book on the eschatological nature of prayer, which is at the heart of intercessory prayer. Jesus taught His disciples to prayer Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Prayer is pleading with God for the kingdom reality to be a present reality. “The Bible repeatedly suggests that prayer brings a response from God, and not merely a change in the will of the petitioner. ‘Whatever the believer asks in faith will be received’ seems to be a pervasive promise of the New Testament. Therefore, any suggestion that petition is solely the task of molding one’s will to the divine will appears truncated, when measured against the total perspective of the biblical writings” (p. 33).
S. D. Gordon, Quiet Talks on Prayer
A well known treatise on prayer by the famous general who died in the Sudan defending the city of Khartoum. Gordon’s writing is colored by his military background and gives a his book an interesting perspective. He writes in response to the question, does prayer influence God?: “Prayer does not influence God. Prayer surely does influence God. It does not influence his purpose. It does influence His action” (p. 40). Gordon was not a theologian and there are some weaknesses to his book, but it is nonetheless worth the reading.