Pray Like Jesus: How to Pray When You’re Not Sure What to Say

by Ricky Smith, NOT A BOOK, Frank Bowden

Have you ever stopped to talk to God and had no idea where to start or what to say? Do you ever wonder if He hears you? Do you wonder if He understands what you are going through? In this book, three pastors dissect the Lord’s Prayer to answer these questions, give insight into what each part means, and show you how to use it to enhance your own prayer life. Prayer gives you joy in the good times, strength and courage in the bad times, and helps you know who God is in a true relationship with Him. Therefore, it is worth it to look closely at Jesus’ example and see what He said about how to pray. You’ll -What the Lord’s Prayer is and what it isn’t -Why we should slow down when we begin to pray -Why saying “Thy will be done” can be difficult -The heart of God when we ask for things -A deeper understanding of forgiveness -The role of temptation in our lives Each chapter ends with questions you can either answer by yourself or use for group study. Our hope is that by walking through Jesus’ words and example, your prayer life and relationship with Him will grow stronger and deeper. Pastor Ricky Smith- Lead Pastor, Calvary Baptist Church Dr. Samuel Thomas- Director of Hopegivers International Pastor Frank Bowden- Student Ministry, Calvary Baptist Church

116 pages, Paperback

Published March 4, 2021

About the author

This page contains works by multiple authors with the same name.

Reviews

[Jonathan Koan · Rating 4 out of 5]

In this short book, Ricky Smith marks his second outing as a writer, after "Forged as One". This time, he is aided by Dr. Samuel Thomas of Hopegivers International and Frank Bowden of Calvary Baptist Church. The three of them tackle the passage of Matthew 6:9-13, known as "The Lord's Prayer".

This book is a very useful companion to the verses, especially if you are working on a Bible Study Group. The 6 chapters can be used as a 6 week course, each reading being full yet at the same time short enough that it doesn't take up too much time for people who aren't normally readers. The questions at the end of each chapter are very apt and cause the reader to think more deeply about the text that they've just read.

One thing this book does well is provide concrete examples of making this prayer normalized. As said many times in the book, prayer is meant to be personal, part of our relationship with God. As such, they show how individuals can follow the format and ideals behind the Lord's Prayer while making it apply to our everyday life.

This book does have one advantage that it's predecessor doesn't have, and that is its "value". It seems a little petty to be discussing the "value" of a religious, study book. The "value" truly is in the content of what it is saying. However, we all have limited budgets on what we can and cannot buy, and must make value judgements on whether a particular book is worth purchasing. This book is roughly 100 pages of actual content(minus the authorial pages and notes), and it is therefore close to the cost of its predecessor, "Forged as One". This book is much wider and taller than the other book, and therefore has more words per page and content per chapter. It's also a little bit cheaper, as FaO costs roughly 10 dollars and this book costs roughly 7 dollars. While both books have incredible content of information and applicability, I'd say "Pray Like Jesus" has much more value in being completely worth the purchase.

I have one major complaint however, and it is unfortunate to have to bring up but merits it. There are significant errors in the books' format. I noticed an incredible amount of times where the formating of words was off, or a letter would be elevated over another letter in a word or would be merged with another letter in the word, causing the reader to have to decipher the word based on context. It is understandable that there will be errors, as this is a self published book and doesn't go through the riggorous editing process that other books might, and it is completely understandable that the price of the book reflects the quality of the material and the printing press used to produce the book. Nevertheless, there are enough errors that it would be distracting to most readers and decreases the value of the book. I still enjoyed reading the book, but the errors still exist. I expect this will get fixed in future printings, so by the time you are reading this it might be moot.

Nevertheless, I thought that Ricky, Samuel, and Frank did an excellent job with the book. I think that it is one that I'll refer back to anytime I'm studying The Lord's Prayer. I especially recommend this book to study groups of people who either don't have much time to read or just don't particularly enjoy the process of reading. This book is easy to read and doesn't get too bogged down in interpretation or theological history to send laymen running. However, the current edition is still riddled with errors, so that is a knock against it. I give this book an 8.0 out of 10. Great job team.

[Gail Earls · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent book on prayer

This is a book about using the Lord's prayer as a guide for our own prayer life. It is easy to read and understand.