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Simple Prayer: Learning to Speak to God with Ease
Sometimes our walk with God seems so difficult. We struggle to find the time to pray, the words to say, and the way to pray them. Are we making prayer more complicated than it needs to be? Charlie Dawes is a pastor and professor who understands both the desires and the challenges of deepening our prayer lives. He has identified simple, biblical prayers that will help you unlock the mystery of conversing with God by paring our words down to their most elemental level. By focusing our prayers, we can open up a new way of relating with God that we have never before experienced. Simple prayer is far from simplistic. Instead, it will help you connect with God at a heart level that cannot be mastered with words alone.
- GenresPrayer
131 pages, Kindle Edition
Published August 29, 2017
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September 11, 2017
Summary: Helps us understand how the “simple” prayers of scripture and those from our hearts may lead us into deep relationship and communion with God.
I suspect that any of us who have set ourselves on the path of following Christ have struggled with prayer. For me it has been the movement from worrying about having the “right” words, to wrestling with things like prayer lists with long recitals of requests to beginning to wonder if I needed so many words and discovering that I didn’t need to fill the silences. Somewhere it dawned on me that the prayer the Lord taught his disciples can be spoken in fifteen seconds, and yet volumes have been written about it.
Charlie Dawes, in this book, observes that prayer can be simple, and yet not simplistic, that in prayer, deep can commune with deep without lots of words. Much like time with a person we love, we may enjoy a deep intimacy captured in a few words: “Lord have mercy,” “Your kingdom come,” “Forgive us our sins,” and “Father, forgive them.” In the Introduction to this book, Dawes writes,
“Simple prayers are all around us. They are found in Scripture. They are hidden in our daily lives. They swirl around our hearts and minds and rest on the tips of our tongues. Simple prayers are for both the novice seeker and the well-worn traveler on the journey of faith. Where do you find yourself at this moment? Are you new to faith? Have you been on this faith walk for years? Do you feel like you are losing your way? Do you feel the wind at your back propelling you into unchartered waters and have a rising anxiety about the unknown? Maybe you are looking for a way to deepen your prayer life. Then it is time to simply pray. We can trust that before we even articulate our thoughts, emotions, or needs, God already knows and desires to respond. A simple prayer paves the way for us to know and be known by God” (pp. 9-10).
The author begins by saying more about what he means by simple prayer, which is often the use of a single word, or short phrase, often drawn from scripture to capture our particular longing for God and God’s presence. Then in succeeding chapters he writes about different simple prayers–the prayer of the heart, the prayer of faith, the prayer of forgiveness, the prayer of unity, the prayer of restoration, the prayer of finding your way.
Chapter seven focuses on simple words to pray–a single word or very short phrase. Here is one example:
“You know me. To be known by God is more than saying that God is aware of us; it is to say that God desires to inhabit every detail of our lives. God is not looking for a social media relationship with us, a relationship from afar. A need for intimacy is woven into us, and we all wander until we find our home in God. I remember watching the sitcom Cheers when I was younger. I loved when Norm would cross the threshold of the bar, and everyone greeted him with a loud, “Norm.” He was beloved, he was known. Take a moment and pray this simple prayer: You know me. Allow each repetition of this prayer to provide more and more assurance to your heart that you are indeed known by God. Your actions cannot undo this and you cannot earn it. You are not known as the sum of your skills or achievements. You are not embraced by the love of God because you have accumulated wealth or possess status. You are known because you are the beloved of God” (pp. 111-112).
What I appreciated about this work was that it articulated a way of praying focused less on methods or tasks, and more on intimacy with the one with whom we engage. It suggested what it might look like to “pray without ceasing” where we carry a word or phrase that we breathe before God throughout the day, like the Jesus prayer. This is prayer which liberates us from the temptation to “be heard for our many words,” tiresome for both the person praying and the one listening–what a mercy that God is so patient with so many of us! It is prayer without pretense or performance, just a few honest words that, like the Lord’s Prayer, may express volumes.
I don’t think this is all that may be said of prayer. Not all our models of prayer in scripture reduce to a word, a phrase or a few phrases. But if you have found the world of many words wearying and long for a more unvarnished, honest, and intimate relationship with God, these “simple prayers” may take you into new depths.
____________________________
Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from the publisher. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own.
I suspect that any of us who have set ourselves on the path of following Christ have struggled with prayer. For me it has been the movement from worrying about having the “right” words, to wrestling with things like prayer lists with long recitals of requests to beginning to wonder if I needed so many words and discovering that I didn’t need to fill the silences. Somewhere it dawned on me that the prayer the Lord taught his disciples can be spoken in fifteen seconds, and yet volumes have been written about it.
Charlie Dawes, in this book, observes that prayer can be simple, and yet not simplistic, that in prayer, deep can commune with deep without lots of words. Much like time with a person we love, we may enjoy a deep intimacy captured in a few words: “Lord have mercy,” “Your kingdom come,” “Forgive us our sins,” and “Father, forgive them.” In the Introduction to this book, Dawes writes,
“Simple prayers are all around us. They are found in Scripture. They are hidden in our daily lives. They swirl around our hearts and minds and rest on the tips of our tongues. Simple prayers are for both the novice seeker and the well-worn traveler on the journey of faith. Where do you find yourself at this moment? Are you new to faith? Have you been on this faith walk for years? Do you feel like you are losing your way? Do you feel the wind at your back propelling you into unchartered waters and have a rising anxiety about the unknown? Maybe you are looking for a way to deepen your prayer life. Then it is time to simply pray. We can trust that before we even articulate our thoughts, emotions, or needs, God already knows and desires to respond. A simple prayer paves the way for us to know and be known by God” (pp. 9-10).
The author begins by saying more about what he means by simple prayer, which is often the use of a single word, or short phrase, often drawn from scripture to capture our particular longing for God and God’s presence. Then in succeeding chapters he writes about different simple prayers–the prayer of the heart, the prayer of faith, the prayer of forgiveness, the prayer of unity, the prayer of restoration, the prayer of finding your way.
Chapter seven focuses on simple words to pray–a single word or very short phrase. Here is one example:
“You know me. To be known by God is more than saying that God is aware of us; it is to say that God desires to inhabit every detail of our lives. God is not looking for a social media relationship with us, a relationship from afar. A need for intimacy is woven into us, and we all wander until we find our home in God. I remember watching the sitcom Cheers when I was younger. I loved when Norm would cross the threshold of the bar, and everyone greeted him with a loud, “Norm.” He was beloved, he was known. Take a moment and pray this simple prayer: You know me. Allow each repetition of this prayer to provide more and more assurance to your heart that you are indeed known by God. Your actions cannot undo this and you cannot earn it. You are not known as the sum of your skills or achievements. You are not embraced by the love of God because you have accumulated wealth or possess status. You are known because you are the beloved of God” (pp. 111-112).
What I appreciated about this work was that it articulated a way of praying focused less on methods or tasks, and more on intimacy with the one with whom we engage. It suggested what it might look like to “pray without ceasing” where we carry a word or phrase that we breathe before God throughout the day, like the Jesus prayer. This is prayer which liberates us from the temptation to “be heard for our many words,” tiresome for both the person praying and the one listening–what a mercy that God is so patient with so many of us! It is prayer without pretense or performance, just a few honest words that, like the Lord’s Prayer, may express volumes.
I don’t think this is all that may be said of prayer. Not all our models of prayer in scripture reduce to a word, a phrase or a few phrases. But if you have found the world of many words wearying and long for a more unvarnished, honest, and intimate relationship with God, these “simple prayers” may take you into new depths.
____________________________
Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from the publisher. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own.
August 25, 2017
There are lots of books on prayer, but reading them doesn't necessarily make you a better pray-er. Developing a prayer life (or just knowing what you are 'supposed to do' while you are praying) can be difficult. But does it have to be? We know that 'the prayer of a righteous man availeth much' (James 5:16, KJV), but is it only those people with heroic prayer disciplines whom God listens to?
Charlie Dawes is a pastor in the DC Metro area and the former vice president for student development at South-eastern University. In Simple Prayer: Learning to Speak to God with Ease , Dawes describes how to develop intimacy with God through praying short sentence prayers. Or sometimes just a single word which calls to mind God's presence. In his introduction, Dawes says, "This book is for those too busy to pray and those who found their prayers to be lifeless. This is a chance to connect our prayer with historic prayers that have carried believers for centuries, and for those prayers to create space in our inner life for us to be with God" (10).
Many of the prayer sentences Dawes points us to, are drawn directly from Scripture—a phrase from the Lord's prayer, or a plaintive cry of someone Jesus encounters. However, Dawes also draws on the wisdom of the Christian tradition—the desert fathers and the Jesus Prayer.
Simple Prayer is divided into eight chapters. Chapter 1 discusses what simple prayer is. Yet, Dawes doesn't offer a simple definition. Instead he describes how prayer shouldn't be transactional or 'a performance.' He describes the goal of prayer as 'union with God' and gives the example of praying Your Kingdom Come—a line lifted from the Lord's prayer—as a short, focused prayer that reminds us (and Jesus' disciples) that the powers we around us are not the ultimate powers. In this way, Dawes invites us to find ways to pray phrases from our Bible reading as a way of entering deeper into what the Spirit of God is saying. That is basically the method. Dawes writes, "Simple prayer is not about making prayer easier or reducing the amount our lives are devoted to prayer, it is about making it more accessible and more precise" (20).
The next seven chapters give various examples of simple prayer, and describes how to pray particular sentence prayers. Chapter 2 is devoted to describing the theology and practice of the Jesus Prayer (Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me, a sinner). Chapter 3 discusses the simple prayer of faith, using the prayers of the Roman Centurion who told Jesus, in faith, "Say the word (and my servant will be healed)," and the desperate father who cried, "I do believe, help me overcome unbelief." Dawes sees these sentences ("say the word" and "Help me overcome unbelief") as simple prayers we can each pray, to teach our hearts to trust, even when faith feels feeble. Chapter 4 explores the simple prayer for forgiveness; chapter 5, unity; and chapter 6 prayers for restoration. These chapters each follow the same pattern: description of phrases drawn from the Bible and instructions on how to pray each.
In chapter 7, Dawes discusses the history of monologistos—prayers that consist of a single word or phrase—in the desert tradition (notably, in John Cassian's Conferences, and John Climicus's Ladder of Divine Ascent (103). Dawes, then discusses several words and phrases in scripture which have been meaningful to his own spiritual life (selah, You know me, and Hosanna)The closing chapter explores simple prayer of finding your way, or more precisely prayers that align our lives with with the things God wants to accomplish.
As you may expect, Simple Prayer is a simple book. It is just 130 pages and mostly just devotional reflections on Bible verses with invitations to pray the phrases. Dawes has done the ground work and it is possible to use this book as a prayer guide, praying the phrases which Dawes has highlighted for us. Yet simple prayer is not simply limited to these particular words and phrases, and you can take the method Dawes employs and pray other Biblical phrases.
As with other books on prayer, reading this book does not guarantee we will become better pray-ers, but Dawes does invite us to pray and gives us an accessible and focused way to do it. There is no formal method here like centering prayer or stages to lectio divina, just praying Bible phrases. As someone who hates formulas and can overcomplicate things, this instructive for me. It doesn't have to be hard, simply pray. I give this four stars. ★★★★
Notice of material connection: I received a copy of this book from InterVarsity Press in exchange for my honest review
Charlie Dawes is a pastor in the DC Metro area and the former vice president for student development at South-eastern University. In Simple Prayer: Learning to Speak to God with Ease , Dawes describes how to develop intimacy with God through praying short sentence prayers. Or sometimes just a single word which calls to mind God's presence. In his introduction, Dawes says, "This book is for those too busy to pray and those who found their prayers to be lifeless. This is a chance to connect our prayer with historic prayers that have carried believers for centuries, and for those prayers to create space in our inner life for us to be with God" (10).
Many of the prayer sentences Dawes points us to, are drawn directly from Scripture—a phrase from the Lord's prayer, or a plaintive cry of someone Jesus encounters. However, Dawes also draws on the wisdom of the Christian tradition—the desert fathers and the Jesus Prayer.
Simple Prayer is divided into eight chapters. Chapter 1 discusses what simple prayer is. Yet, Dawes doesn't offer a simple definition. Instead he describes how prayer shouldn't be transactional or 'a performance.' He describes the goal of prayer as 'union with God' and gives the example of praying Your Kingdom Come—a line lifted from the Lord's prayer—as a short, focused prayer that reminds us (and Jesus' disciples) that the powers we around us are not the ultimate powers. In this way, Dawes invites us to find ways to pray phrases from our Bible reading as a way of entering deeper into what the Spirit of God is saying. That is basically the method. Dawes writes, "Simple prayer is not about making prayer easier or reducing the amount our lives are devoted to prayer, it is about making it more accessible and more precise" (20).
The next seven chapters give various examples of simple prayer, and describes how to pray particular sentence prayers. Chapter 2 is devoted to describing the theology and practice of the Jesus Prayer (Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me, a sinner). Chapter 3 discusses the simple prayer of faith, using the prayers of the Roman Centurion who told Jesus, in faith, "Say the word (and my servant will be healed)," and the desperate father who cried, "I do believe, help me overcome unbelief." Dawes sees these sentences ("say the word" and "Help me overcome unbelief") as simple prayers we can each pray, to teach our hearts to trust, even when faith feels feeble. Chapter 4 explores the simple prayer for forgiveness; chapter 5, unity; and chapter 6 prayers for restoration. These chapters each follow the same pattern: description of phrases drawn from the Bible and instructions on how to pray each.
In chapter 7, Dawes discusses the history of monologistos—prayers that consist of a single word or phrase—in the desert tradition (notably, in John Cassian's Conferences, and John Climicus's Ladder of Divine Ascent (103). Dawes, then discusses several words and phrases in scripture which have been meaningful to his own spiritual life (selah, You know me, and Hosanna)The closing chapter explores simple prayer of finding your way, or more precisely prayers that align our lives with with the things God wants to accomplish.
As you may expect, Simple Prayer is a simple book. It is just 130 pages and mostly just devotional reflections on Bible verses with invitations to pray the phrases. Dawes has done the ground work and it is possible to use this book as a prayer guide, praying the phrases which Dawes has highlighted for us. Yet simple prayer is not simply limited to these particular words and phrases, and you can take the method Dawes employs and pray other Biblical phrases.
As with other books on prayer, reading this book does not guarantee we will become better pray-ers, but Dawes does invite us to pray and gives us an accessible and focused way to do it. There is no formal method here like centering prayer or stages to lectio divina, just praying Bible phrases. As someone who hates formulas and can overcomplicate things, this instructive for me. It doesn't have to be hard, simply pray. I give this four stars. ★★★★
Notice of material connection: I received a copy of this book from InterVarsity Press in exchange for my honest review
August 5, 2019
TLDR: This book on (Christian) Prayer is edifying and while it may not blow you away, it will benefit your prayer life at the least. If that's what you're looking for give it a read.
Review of the book:
I will keep this review short as I think the first two reviewers did a more than sufficient job summarizing and reviewing (and because it's a short read ~130 pages, if you're going to read a handful of reviews you might as well have just read the first chapter). I don't have much negative to say about this, but in the way of criticism, I felt the book could have been even shorter than it was and that some of his points were not profound enough to need to be developed over a full chapter/section, but could have been condensed. Parts of the book read like sermons (he is a pastor to be fair) where Dawes went into a story in order to make his point. There is a difference between sitting through a sermon and reading a book; I don't need to be "hooked in" or "entertained" as the reader and could have done with less prosaic, life-experience recounting or anecdotal details and just taken the homilety/moral-takeaway at face value. Also, this book is inadvertently written from a contemporary western (or even more specifically US American) Christian perspective; I happen to have been born and raised in the US so this didn't trip me up, but if you're reading from the perspective of a different worldview just know that all of the cultural and traditional references and modern problems in relation to Christianity/prayer are drawn from his (American) experience. Notwithstanding I think the book is more than worth a read to edify anyones prayer life who may be looking for a better more accesible door to intimacy with God today.
summary of book:
Dawes opens with a discussion of the difficulty of prayer and having experienced traditions where he was taught to prioritize eloquence and length of prayers; he ultimately felt a lack of accessibility to God or intimacy with God in his prayer life despite having been practicing prayer for years. So in this book he invites us to venture away from only praying in that way and consider the goal of prayer as union with God. He offers a few "simple" (but not "simplistic") prayers to pray and repeat regularly that are precise and accessible.
I'll jot some simple prayers here for your convenience:
The Jesus prayer: "Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me, a sinner."
(Chapter 3) simple prayer of faith "Say the word [and my servant will be healed]" and the desperate father (Mark 9:24) who cried, "I do believe, help me overcome unbelief."
(Chapter 4) prayer for forgiveness; "father forgive them"
(chapter 5), unity. Praying that as a people would be one as the Father and Christ are one.
"not my will but your will Father"
monologistos: "selah", "You know me", and "Hosanna"
Review of the book:
I will keep this review short as I think the first two reviewers did a more than sufficient job summarizing and reviewing (and because it's a short read ~130 pages, if you're going to read a handful of reviews you might as well have just read the first chapter). I don't have much negative to say about this, but in the way of criticism, I felt the book could have been even shorter than it was and that some of his points were not profound enough to need to be developed over a full chapter/section, but could have been condensed. Parts of the book read like sermons (he is a pastor to be fair) where Dawes went into a story in order to make his point. There is a difference between sitting through a sermon and reading a book; I don't need to be "hooked in" or "entertained" as the reader and could have done with less prosaic, life-experience recounting or anecdotal details and just taken the homilety/moral-takeaway at face value. Also, this book is inadvertently written from a contemporary western (or even more specifically US American) Christian perspective; I happen to have been born and raised in the US so this didn't trip me up, but if you're reading from the perspective of a different worldview just know that all of the cultural and traditional references and modern problems in relation to Christianity/prayer are drawn from his (American) experience. Notwithstanding I think the book is more than worth a read to edify anyones prayer life who may be looking for a better more accesible door to intimacy with God today.
summary of book:
Dawes opens with a discussion of the difficulty of prayer and having experienced traditions where he was taught to prioritize eloquence and length of prayers; he ultimately felt a lack of accessibility to God or intimacy with God in his prayer life despite having been practicing prayer for years. So in this book he invites us to venture away from only praying in that way and consider the goal of prayer as union with God. He offers a few "simple" (but not "simplistic") prayers to pray and repeat regularly that are precise and accessible.
I'll jot some simple prayers here for your convenience:
The Jesus prayer: "Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me, a sinner."
(Chapter 3) simple prayer of faith "Say the word [and my servant will be healed]" and the desperate father (Mark 9:24) who cried, "I do believe, help me overcome unbelief."
(Chapter 4) prayer for forgiveness; "father forgive them"
(chapter 5), unity. Praying that as a people would be one as the Father and Christ are one.
"not my will but your will Father"
monologistos: "selah", "You know me", and "Hosanna"
February 21, 2022
Such a powerful, enlightening and motivational read! Quite a "simple" topic, but discussed in deep, Biblical terminology with references. The power of this read is in its simplicity and applicability to our prayer lives.
The author is a master of taking complicated ideals and using simple prayers to exemplify them, weaving his own personal experiences. I think this truly keeps the read balanced, allowing readers to connect with the author and see his own humanity, struggles and vulnerabilities as well. He does a great job of connecting with readers of all backgrounds.
This has truly changed my perspective and approach to prayer, helping me to refocus the power of prayer on my heart and orientation to the Lord. This shifts the attention away from the "transactional" mindset, where we feel we have to have the right word choice and are often tempted to "go through the motions." I highly recommend - I would give more than 5 starts if I could!
The author is a master of taking complicated ideals and using simple prayers to exemplify them, weaving his own personal experiences. I think this truly keeps the read balanced, allowing readers to connect with the author and see his own humanity, struggles and vulnerabilities as well. He does a great job of connecting with readers of all backgrounds.
This has truly changed my perspective and approach to prayer, helping me to refocus the power of prayer on my heart and orientation to the Lord. This shifts the attention away from the "transactional" mindset, where we feel we have to have the right word choice and are often tempted to "go through the motions." I highly recommend - I would give more than 5 starts if I could!
February 18, 2020
The author provides a convincing case that simple one-word or a phrase prayers can be as valuable and sincere as longer prayers. By finding examples of genuine short prayers in the Bible and those developed by Christian saints, he provides a list of prayers that the reader can incorporate into his or her life.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews