Long Wandering Prayer: An Invitation to Walk With God

by David Hansen

Many of us experience guilt and frustration about our prayer lives. We want to pray. We want to experience God's presence. But we easily get bored or irritated with our wandering minds. Here's what David Hansen has to say about extended times of prayer. "Long wandering prayer involves leaving our normal environment for the express purpose of spending several hours with God alone, but not secluded. It involves walking, or at least moving, so that we can stop at any time and consider a lily for an unpredictable length of time. It is mental wandering in the presence of God. Long wandering prayer uses the fact that our minds wander as an advantage to prayer rather than as a disadvantage. In long wandering prayer we frankly recognize that what we want to pray about may not be what God wants us to pray about and that our obsessive drive to control our minds in the presence of God--to pray about one thing or stick to one list--may be a form of hiding from God." If you want to learn how to go deeper in your relationship with God, this book will be a trusted companion in your journey.

Genres: Christian, Prayer, Spirituality

168 pages, Paperback

First published February 17, 2001

Reviews

[Valerie Alexanian · Rating 4 out of 5]

This doesn’t feel like my typical read, but I thoroughly enjoyed it! He really encourages readers to ‘walk with God in the cool of the day’

[Andrew · Rating 4 out of 5]

David Hansen challenges the assumption that being transformed by prayer is something we can experience efficiently rather than through long wrestling in His presence.

[John (JP)]

One of the books I'd reccomend to buy!!! 168 pages. 7 chapters. This is tough complex book to read.But you efforts will be rewarded, if you tough it out. I had the pleasure of meeting the author. The book reads like speaks. The point of the book is to give the person whose been told there is one way to pray , that prayer is supposed to freeing rather than restrictive. Its OK if you can't do prayer lists, its a gift from God when you start praying about one thing and your mind wanders to another topic. Wandering is the nature of conversation. Prayer is at its core a conversation between the Creator and created. Conversations take place under a vartiey of conditions and activities that are not associated with being on your knees. The nature and lenght of prayer changes as life changes. The author wants prayer to be considered a journey with someone who cares for you and can be and is often silent, rather than a task on a to do list that is considered dreaded but needed. Finally the author says it takes more faith pray when God is silent than when you physicaly experience him. David gets experiences with God often while is wife gets nothing. Yet David considers Beth's ( Davids wife of 33 years)prayer life and ministry far richer than his own.

[LuAnn · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was wandering, confusing, contradictory, irritating, vague but good. It gives you permission to prayer as you can, wander in your prayers, just like some conversations wander. The author encourages you to "pray long"--take the time to wrestle with God, stream-of-consciousness pray with God, take a long walk and long talk with God because it takes time to know what we really feel and think, to express ourselves, to work issues through and to gain God's perspective. Probably one of the most realistic books on prayer. A favorite quote: "the long prayer of faith lets the relief of salvation sink deep. ...Long prayer gives grace time within the soul." p 135. "Pray as you can, not as you can't," kept coming to mind as I read this book.