Designed to Pray: Creative Ways to Engage with God

by Kelly O Stanley

Your conversations with God can be as fun and creative as He is.
Whether you’ve been praying for a long time or are just beginning to enter in, this eight-week adventure from Kelly O’Dell Stanley will infuse passion and creativity into your communication with God. Filled with daily interactive activities―everything from coloring pages to writing prompts to doodling―you’ll find space to let go of fear and expectations and discover what it means to engage with the One who loves you.

Designed to Pray offers an innovative way to start viewing God, the world around you, and your faith with a new perspective. Because when you pray, you’re nurturing a relationship with God. It’s what you were designed to do.

Genres: Christian, Nonfiction, Prayer

224 pages, Paperback

Published August 1, 2016

Reviews

[Abby McDonald · Rating 5 out of 5]

Kelly's book is exactly what I needed to wake up my prayer life. It is unlike any book I've ever read and filled with fun ways to explore prayer. I knew prayer was simply conversing with God but fun? Yes! It can be. Amazing. Through this book, I've learned my prayers and the way I approach them can be as creative and limitless as He is. I never would have thought of these ideas for approaching conversation with God if it hadn't gotten a copy of this. I highly recommend it to anyone who is going through a season of stagnant prayer or is looking for creative ideas to approach it.

[Andria · Rating 4 out of 5]

This started out excellent with ideas that I would never have thought of on my own. It gave a wake up to my prayer life. But by the end, it was just more of the same and I didn’t do many of the activities in the later part of the book.

[Kathleen B. · Rating 3 out of 5]

My goal for purchasing this 8-week daily devotional was to help me get back into the habit of daily prayer. I accomplished this. I completed the book.

I really like the daily prayer prompts; the simple prompts encouraged me to pray for people I'd never thought to pray for.

However...This book had very little scripture and the daily reading lost my interest after the first week. Each day has a creative activity as well - "color this design while praying for...." the first week or two these were interesting. But it seemed the author quickly ran out of ideas.

I'm a 54 year old empty-nester and didn't particularly like the creative prompts. A teenager might find them fun.

[Julie D. · Rating 5 out of 5]

I absolutely love this book!! It has made my prayer time and life so much more meaningful. As a creative person, I've so enjoyed doing the different activities that bring my God-given creative talents into my time of praying to Him.

This is an eight week book that will spark your creativity and your conversation with God. There is a small reading and activity for each day and each one builds on the previous. There isn't a lot of pressure with this book and that's what I loved about it. It's really about having a relationship with God through our prayers and creativity. I really love that the author emphasizes that there shouldn't be pressure when doing this.

This book has become my prayer journal and I've enjoyed doing the activities as well as focusing on my prayers in a new way. There are several areas where you can color in the already printed pictures and that has become a quiet time activity for me. I haven't finished picture in one setting but have used it as my activity to do when I am really focusing on my most heart-felt prayers about things that are bothering me most.

This book has brought new life into my prayer life and I have loved that I can take my time going through each day. I really love this book and I believe you will, too. I highly recommend this book and give it 5 out of 5 stars.

*This book was provided to me for my honest review by BlogAbout

[Shannon · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is truly a delight. Kelly O'Dell Stanley has a wonderful way of challenging you to step outside of your comfort zone to communicate with God in different ways. Through activities and thought-provoking prayer prompts, the reader is taken on an 8-week prayer journey that is sure to leave a lasting impact.

[Casey · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not crazy about it. I was hoping for more depth, I guess. DNF

[Wanda (The Watered Soul) · Rating 4 out of 5]

In Designed to Pray: Creative Ways to Engage With God, Kelly O’Dell Stanley presents a no-frills, no intimidation way of reconnecting with God in an eight-week adventure. She doesn’t approach the subject as one who has attained but instead as a fellow sojourner in the journey of finding peace with our prayer life. It's not one of those books that you may read cover to cover but rather one you use a journal. However, it’s one of those books that can be used by the season prayer warrior or one who is still trying to find your footing in prayer. It’s an interactive book.

I received a copy of the book via the publisher for review purposes. Views and opinion expressed are my own.

[Lorien Owens · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good book/workbook to put some freshness in your prayer life. Some exercises are meh, some are great.