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Dangerous Prayers: Because Following Jesus Was Never Meant to Be Safe
Do you ever wonder, "Why doesn't God answer my prayers?" Do you wish you could see the evidence that prayer changes lives? Are you tired of playing it safe with your faith? In Dangerous Prayers, New York Times bestselling author Craig Groeschel helps you unlock your greatest potential and tackle your greatest fears by praying stronger, more passionate prayers that lead you into a deeper faith.
Prayer moves the heart of God--but some prayers move Him more than others. He wants more for us than a tepid faith and half-hearted routines at the dinner table. He's called you to a life of courage, not comfort.
This book will show you how to pray the prayers that search your soul, break your habits, and send you to pursue the calling God has for you. But be warned: if you're fine with settling for what's easy, or you're OK with staying on the sidelines, this book isn't for you. You'll be challenged. You'll be tested. You'll be moved to take a long, hard look at your heart.
But you'll be inspired, too.
You'll be inspired to pray boldly. To pray powerfully. To pray with fire. You'll see how you can trade ineffective prayers and lukewarm faith for raw, daring prayers that will push you to new levels of passion and fulfillment. You'll discover the secret to overcome fears of loss, rejection, failure, and the unknown and welcome the blessings God has for you on the other side.
You'll gain the courage it takes to pray dangerous prayers.
Prayer moves the heart of God--but some prayers move Him more than others. He wants more for us than a tepid faith and half-hearted routines at the dinner table. He's called you to a life of courage, not comfort.
This book will show you how to pray the prayers that search your soul, break your habits, and send you to pursue the calling God has for you. But be warned: if you're fine with settling for what's easy, or you're OK with staying on the sidelines, this book isn't for you. You'll be challenged. You'll be tested. You'll be moved to take a long, hard look at your heart.
But you'll be inspired, too.
You'll be inspired to pray boldly. To pray powerfully. To pray with fire. You'll see how you can trade ineffective prayers and lukewarm faith for raw, daring prayers that will push you to new levels of passion and fulfillment. You'll discover the secret to overcome fears of loss, rejection, failure, and the unknown and welcome the blessings God has for you on the other side.
You'll gain the courage it takes to pray dangerous prayers.
187 pages, Hardcover
Published February 4, 2020
1483 people are currently reading
5716 people want to read
About the author
Craig Groeschel
98 books1,654 followersCraig Groeschel is the founding and senior pastor of Life.Church, a multisite church with locations throughout the United States and globally at Life.Church Online.
Craig and his wife Amy started Life.Church in a two-car garage in Edmond, Oklahoma in January 1996. While Life.Church has grown over the years, its mission remains the same: to lead people to become fully devoted followers of Christ. Today, the church is known for its innovative use of technology to spread the Gospel, launching the first fully digital church experience in 2006 and the most downloaded Bible app in history, YouVersion, in 2008.
As a widely respected leader in the Church, Craig speaks frequently at leadership events and conferences worldwide. He is a New York Times best-selling author with books about topics like dating and marriage, social media, purpose, direction, church leadership, and more. He also hosts the Craig Groeschel Leadership Podcast, a practical tool to spark new ideas and prompt innovative thinking in leaders at every level within any organization.
Craig and Amy married in 1991 and have six children. They live in Oklahoma where Life.Church began.
Visit www.craiggroeschel.com to be the first to hear about new podcast episodes, books, leadership events, and more.
Craig and his wife Amy started Life.Church in a two-car garage in Edmond, Oklahoma in January 1996. While Life.Church has grown over the years, its mission remains the same: to lead people to become fully devoted followers of Christ. Today, the church is known for its innovative use of technology to spread the Gospel, launching the first fully digital church experience in 2006 and the most downloaded Bible app in history, YouVersion, in 2008.
As a widely respected leader in the Church, Craig speaks frequently at leadership events and conferences worldwide. He is a New York Times best-selling author with books about topics like dating and marriage, social media, purpose, direction, church leadership, and more. He also hosts the Craig Groeschel Leadership Podcast, a practical tool to spark new ideas and prompt innovative thinking in leaders at every level within any organization.
Craig and Amy married in 1991 and have six children. They live in Oklahoma where Life.Church began.
Visit www.craiggroeschel.com to be the first to hear about new podcast episodes, books, leadership events, and more.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 534 reviews
March 30, 2020
It’s an excellent time to reboot your prayer life, due to the current pandemic in our culture. This book is simple, powerful and profound. Craig Groeschel writes with wisdom, humor, gentleness, and honesty, sharing three basic prayers drawn straight from scripture. I love this book because it taught me to look at the scriptures in a new way and pray with more intention. In April 2020, I’ll be doing the online Bible study with this book at Proverbs 31 Ministries…you can sign up today!
I purchased my own copy of Dangerous Prayers from CBD.
I purchased my own copy of Dangerous Prayers from CBD.
February 9, 2020
A year ago I reflected on (and even journaled about) how I had prayed some dangerous prayers over the previous 10 years. I had asked to have a heart like Jesus, and to have God know me and to know Him. I had prayed “yes Lord” before I knew the question. These and others have been transformative, but not because of me. It is the work of God in me.
This book is like a journal of my experience. It seems to start a bit slow, but that could be my ego thinking I don’t need the low level stuff. But then Groeschell got real and raw, and I was broken. The entire second half of the book was gripping. (And I’m in no way asserting the first half is bad.)
The theology is solid, the grace abounding, and the glory of Christ is celebrated. All that is waiting is for the reader to take the plunge.
This book is like a journal of my experience. It seems to start a bit slow, but that could be my ego thinking I don’t need the low level stuff. But then Groeschell got real and raw, and I was broken. The entire second half of the book was gripping. (And I’m in no way asserting the first half is bad.)
The theology is solid, the grace abounding, and the glory of Christ is celebrated. All that is waiting is for the reader to take the plunge.
April 17, 2022
Outstanding. I challenge every Christian to read this book for spiritual growth.
October 27, 2020
The title and premise of Groeschel's book is venturesome, leading the reader to believe that there is some unknown aspect of prayer that will break open the heavens and send the enemy running. For the new believer who is being introduced to the relational blessings of prayer, this book offers the foundations for building a fervant prayer life. As for the more mature seasoned Christian, it is a review of the faith filled surrendered life of a follower of Jesus Christ. It is a short read, easily accomplished in a small group or on-line study. Full of personal testimony, and limited on scriptural references (for my taste), it is perfect for the new desciple in Christ.
I gave it three stars because I wanted more depth and scripture.
I gave it three stars because I wanted more depth and scripture.
March 31, 2020
I chose to take a look at this book by Craig Groeschel after taking a Bible study class on David and learning about some of the dangerous prayers that he prayed. After hearing that David was a 'man after God's own heart' I wondered if I needed to change the way I was praying because my prayers sounded nothing like some of the prayers David prayed. After getting a short ways into this book, I realized it is because my prayers have been safe and I need to learn to pray to God with conviction and to learn to pray dangerously.
In this book, Craig challenges us to pray three dangerous requests of our God: Search me, break me, send me. He challenges us to pray from the heart because it is personal and unmistakable. To be simple yet direct and not get bored with our prayers. Throughout the book, Craig dives deep into each segment of the prayer: search me, break me, and send me.
In the first section of the book he explains how we should ask God to search us. God is the creator of everything and he knows our thoughts, our actions, and our hearts. He knows us as our truest selves in a way that no other person can know us. Because of this, we must pray dangerously and ask God to search us; to search our minds and our hearts to find those things that might be offensive to Him. This forces us to face out own shortcomings and selfishness. Ask God to reveal all those things that might show the slightest offense to Him. Through this prayer we must face our greatest fears and our biggest downfalls. Praying for God to search us reveals where our trust in God is weak because it exposes our fears: "Ultimately, our fears show how we're relying on our own efforts and not trusting in our Savior". So we must gain the courage to pray to God and ask Him to search us and reveal those things that are not Holy in the hopes that through exposure and head on confrontation we can drive them from our being in an attempt to be closer with Jesus.
In the second section of the book, Craig challenges us to pray to ask God to break us. This was the scariest request in the book for me to get my head around. It is hard to imagine asking God to bring you to a low, broken place. When you think about the power that God has and the low places that he is capable of taking you it truly is difficult to understand that the lessons God teaches and the connection he builds when we are at our lowest is often one of the strongest interactions we can ever obtain with our God. We gain our maturity through troubling times, so by praying only safe prayers, we are robbing ourselves of the wisdom and maturity that come with being broken down.
When God choses to break us, he takes away our sense of self. In that low place of selflessness, we can truly recognize our whole reliance on our Savior. We hang on to our comfort with safe prayers by surrendering the lessons learned through being broken. So even though it might be one of the scariest things you'll ever ask of God, it is worth asking for Him to break us and bring us closer to Him in the process.
The last section of the book is focused on how we need to step out of our comfort zones and be prepared to move for God. Instead of asking for detailed information and only doing things in God's name when it suits us, we need to be prepared to ask God to send us wherever He needs us whenever He needs us. Whenever God calls us we should respond immediately with nothing other than a resounding YES. God does not hide from us. He is waiting for us to come to Him. All we have to do is say yes and God will use us. So we must pray for Him to send us. Let Him know we are ready and that the answer will be yes at any time under any circumstance. We will go wherever he sends us and do whatever He asks. It will often make us uncomfortable, but it will also grow us and grow the kingdom of God in the process.
All in all, I really enjoyed this book. I took it slow reading this book and prayed each night that I read it. I wasn't able to ask God to break me until I got done with the book and did a true reflection on what I wanted from my relationship with God and how far I could really allow myself to go to build that relationship. Truthfully, God is going to break us all anyways. He's going to search us and he's going to send us. We have to be ready for these things to see God's face when He reveals it. In this sense, I have to ask God to break me. If He is going to break me and put me low, I need to be ready for when He puts me there so I can grasp on to Him to get back up again.
I would recommend this to anyone looking to grow in their faith or grow in prayer. I was looking to grow specifically in prayer since I felt that my prayers were growing a bit stale and I found that this book has challenged me to talk to God in a different way. In a way that I think is more dangerous in the short run, but extremely fruitful in the long run.
In this book, Craig challenges us to pray three dangerous requests of our God: Search me, break me, send me. He challenges us to pray from the heart because it is personal and unmistakable. To be simple yet direct and not get bored with our prayers. Throughout the book, Craig dives deep into each segment of the prayer: search me, break me, and send me.
In the first section of the book he explains how we should ask God to search us. God is the creator of everything and he knows our thoughts, our actions, and our hearts. He knows us as our truest selves in a way that no other person can know us. Because of this, we must pray dangerously and ask God to search us; to search our minds and our hearts to find those things that might be offensive to Him. This forces us to face out own shortcomings and selfishness. Ask God to reveal all those things that might show the slightest offense to Him. Through this prayer we must face our greatest fears and our biggest downfalls. Praying for God to search us reveals where our trust in God is weak because it exposes our fears: "Ultimately, our fears show how we're relying on our own efforts and not trusting in our Savior". So we must gain the courage to pray to God and ask Him to search us and reveal those things that are not Holy in the hopes that through exposure and head on confrontation we can drive them from our being in an attempt to be closer with Jesus.
In the second section of the book, Craig challenges us to pray to ask God to break us. This was the scariest request in the book for me to get my head around. It is hard to imagine asking God to bring you to a low, broken place. When you think about the power that God has and the low places that he is capable of taking you it truly is difficult to understand that the lessons God teaches and the connection he builds when we are at our lowest is often one of the strongest interactions we can ever obtain with our God. We gain our maturity through troubling times, so by praying only safe prayers, we are robbing ourselves of the wisdom and maturity that come with being broken down.
When God choses to break us, he takes away our sense of self. In that low place of selflessness, we can truly recognize our whole reliance on our Savior. We hang on to our comfort with safe prayers by surrendering the lessons learned through being broken. So even though it might be one of the scariest things you'll ever ask of God, it is worth asking for Him to break us and bring us closer to Him in the process.
The last section of the book is focused on how we need to step out of our comfort zones and be prepared to move for God. Instead of asking for detailed information and only doing things in God's name when it suits us, we need to be prepared to ask God to send us wherever He needs us whenever He needs us. Whenever God calls us we should respond immediately with nothing other than a resounding YES. God does not hide from us. He is waiting for us to come to Him. All we have to do is say yes and God will use us. So we must pray for Him to send us. Let Him know we are ready and that the answer will be yes at any time under any circumstance. We will go wherever he sends us and do whatever He asks. It will often make us uncomfortable, but it will also grow us and grow the kingdom of God in the process.
All in all, I really enjoyed this book. I took it slow reading this book and prayed each night that I read it. I wasn't able to ask God to break me until I got done with the book and did a true reflection on what I wanted from my relationship with God and how far I could really allow myself to go to build that relationship. Truthfully, God is going to break us all anyways. He's going to search us and he's going to send us. We have to be ready for these things to see God's face when He reveals it. In this sense, I have to ask God to break me. If He is going to break me and put me low, I need to be ready for when He puts me there so I can grasp on to Him to get back up again.
I would recommend this to anyone looking to grow in their faith or grow in prayer. I was looking to grow specifically in prayer since I felt that my prayers were growing a bit stale and I found that this book has challenged me to talk to God in a different way. In a way that I think is more dangerous in the short run, but extremely fruitful in the long run.
July 9, 2020
2-1/2 stars... one of the dangerous prayers was to ask God to break me. Why would I ask God, my loving Father to "Break Me" and want Him to cause me pain, rather than asking Him to guide me to be a better person, etc? A few of these prayers are like this, which I personally don’t believe in doing.
May 17, 2022
such a good book if you’re looking to reboot your prayer life, finding and understanding the deeper connection that can be found one-on-one with you and christ. changing ‘safe’ prayers to dangerous ones - opening yourself up to him at a deeper and more vulnerable level. a must read !!
April 17, 2021
Convicting
March 22, 2023
Great book that explained real persuasively why living in prayerful dependence on God is so much better than trying to control my life circumstances. Greatly encouraged me to ask God to search me, break me and send me.
April 12, 2021
Having just finished Timothy J. Keller's book Prayer: Experiencing Awe and Intimacy with God, this was like reading a book for teens. Groeschel's style did not do it for me. As I scroll other's reviews, I see this book has helped many in their prayer life and if that's so, that's really great - I can't argue with a book that's helped people.
January 5, 2021
This book is something else.
Its the first time i read a christian book and all I can say is am in love.
The way he encourages you to pray dangerous prayers. *Dangerous prayers* Its dangerous yet joyful.
He describes the state of each and every person who’s struggling with praying same and safe prayers everyday. You should get out of your comfort zone in prayers to get to know God more.
Also, this book is full of prayers which can really help you to pray and you can find them in the Bible.
Love it.
Its the first time i read a christian book and all I can say is am in love.
The way he encourages you to pray dangerous prayers. *Dangerous prayers* Its dangerous yet joyful.
He describes the state of each and every person who’s struggling with praying same and safe prayers everyday. You should get out of your comfort zone in prayers to get to know God more.
Also, this book is full of prayers which can really help you to pray and you can find them in the Bible.
Love it.
July 28, 2025
Another underwhelming read. I feel like I had read much of what he wrote here in other places but it was still full of good ideas and reminders.
October 25, 2024
To be completely honest I decided to read this book because it was short and I wanted to finish my reading goal. I wasn’t really planning to engage in it or apply it to my life. But This book absolutely wrecked me In the best way, I felt fresh conviction, a new desire to pray, and build relationships with Jesus. 10/10 recommend.
April 5, 2025
This book just wowed me…convicted me and challenged me. I just want to read again and I just finished it. If you are new to prayer this book is for you…if you want to pray better and go deeper this book is for you. If you are a seasoned prayer warrior, I believe this book is still for you. So many insights and sincere thought provoking words came out of this book. Some that I am still thinking about, mulling over and honestly just thanking God that He used a vessel (this author) to give words of encouragement and wisdom to write a book like this. Just read this book. Sounds cliche, but seriously…bump it to your next read.
February 24, 2020
Extremely good book. Makes you think about what/how you have been praying and how to improve how you pray. I have enjoyed this book and will read it again to get what I may have missed the first time. Saying that, let me add that it is an extremely easy to read book written in everyday layman's language.
March 6, 2020
An easy, but convicting read. For anyone who feels dry or needs direction in their prayer life, definitely recommend. There are a lot of great takeaways that you can start applying today! This is definitely a book I will teach from.
February 22, 2021
Craig Groeschel has been a favorite speaker for the several years that I’ve attended the Global Leadership Summit, and as I read, I could hear him speaking the words! This book on praying “dangerous” prayers was just what I needed to read, just when I needed to read it. I won’t give away the three dangerous prayers he suggests in the book, but I’m eager to put them into practice in my own life. Short chapters, easy reading.
December 31, 2021
Fantastic read. So much so, I read it back to back. There is tons of greatness to get out of this one. It's a wonderful Christian book full of great advice and suggestions on how to pray, what to pray and how to use prayer daily. I highly recommend this one.
May 18, 2020
Having its substance in just a few verses from the Bible, this book manages to awaken something raw, powerful and of course dangerous in a believer’s soul, when it comes to praying. It does not only talk about what might happen, but it’s illustrated with great examples and it challenges you to stop living a safe life, to seek discomfort, to ask for it and to live boldly.
August 1, 2022
This was a great book on prayer. Honestly, I need to reread it when I can really let it sink in. I felt like it didn't sink in like it needed to. However, I would recommend it to others.
September 10, 2023
A life of comfort probably isn’t what God intends for us.
Three prayers: Search me. Break me. Send me.
Three prayers: Search me. Break me. Send me.
April 11, 2021
Craig never disappoints! Lots of hard hitters here!
January 14, 2025
I need to reread this again. It details so many different prayers and why they are so important. Teaches to pray more boldly and courageously. Love it!
July 21, 2024
Quick little read/listen about the power of praying prayers like "Lord search me, break me, send me."
May 7, 2020
This book feels simple on the surface, but life-changing if I can let it seep into my heart. My soul is frequently torn between the safe and the dangerous, and this book called me out! Highly recommend.
June 15, 2024
Good book on prayer.
August 9, 2022
Simple, yet difficult. Easy, yet daring. This book is written in an easy, engaging style, which makes it a quick read. Craig Groeschel also gets straight to the point in each chapter, adding in stories that add to the depth of the prayers without any extra fluff. He limits himself to three prayers--potentially life-changing prayers if the reader will actually give God full control of the answers.
But the beauty of this book is that the simplistic prayers can go ever deeper into our hearts and lives. Just like we can always learn to trust God more, we can always go farther into more hidden or complex issues of life that we need to ponder, change and/or heal from. Although I listened to this book on audio, I will likely buy a print book to keep on my shelves to refer back to and to remind myself to read it again and again.
But the beauty of this book is that the simplistic prayers can go ever deeper into our hearts and lives. Just like we can always learn to trust God more, we can always go farther into more hidden or complex issues of life that we need to ponder, change and/or heal from. Although I listened to this book on audio, I will likely buy a print book to keep on my shelves to refer back to and to remind myself to read it again and again.
March 12, 2021
2.5 stars
Now that I’ve had time to process this book, I truly think it was meant for adolescents or new believers in the faith. Someone like my 12 year old niece would probably really like this book. He spoke very simple to the point that I would lose interest. He talked about his experience with praying these “dangerous” prayers. But this book just didn’t give me much or provide new insight. Which is fine!
I do think there’s better books on prayer for the more mature & intellectual believer like S.D. Gordon’s “Quiet Talks on Prayer”
But for those who want an easy and very understandable book on prayer, then this could be the book for you.
Now that I’ve had time to process this book, I truly think it was meant for adolescents or new believers in the faith. Someone like my 12 year old niece would probably really like this book. He spoke very simple to the point that I would lose interest. He talked about his experience with praying these “dangerous” prayers. But this book just didn’t give me much or provide new insight. Which is fine!
I do think there’s better books on prayer for the more mature & intellectual believer like S.D. Gordon’s “Quiet Talks on Prayer”
But for those who want an easy and very understandable book on prayer, then this could be the book for you.
June 4, 2022
I could see this as being helpful to someone maybe very early on their faith, but ultimately it’s a pretty simple book. What it explains in however many pages it is, a good book on prayer might explain in a chapter. I do like Craig as a person! And I hope that the Holy Spirit draws whoever needs this book as a spark in their faith and prayer life!
March 11, 2020
Oh so good. Let us always be praying dangerous prayers that bring us out of our comfort zone and into a place where God can use us. Search me. Break me. Lead me.
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