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Worried about Everything Because I Pray about Nothing: How to Live with Peace and Purpose Instead of Stress and Burnout
Say Good-bye to Stress and Burnout, and Hello to Peace and Purpose
What comes to mind when you think about prayer? Does it feel like something for holy people but not for you? Or like a mystical experience you could never hope to achieve in real life? Or maybe just a boring duty with little payoff.
In this book, author and pastor Chad Veach demystifies the concept of prayer by explaining in practical terms what prayer looks like in our day-to-day lives. It turns out, it's not hard! This passionate, personal approach to prayer removes the pressure to "pray right" and replaces it with the calm assurance that God wants to hear from us and respond to us in love.
Along with building a case for the importance of prayer, Chad uses stories and compelling insights from the Bible to give practical advice for how to make your prayers more effective. He highlights where we can and should pray and offers tangible strategies to implement a praying lifestyle within the busyness of modern life.
Prayer works! Here's how to connect with God just like He's always wanted.
What comes to mind when you think about prayer? Does it feel like something for holy people but not for you? Or like a mystical experience you could never hope to achieve in real life? Or maybe just a boring duty with little payoff.
In this book, author and pastor Chad Veach demystifies the concept of prayer by explaining in practical terms what prayer looks like in our day-to-day lives. It turns out, it's not hard! This passionate, personal approach to prayer removes the pressure to "pray right" and replaces it with the calm assurance that God wants to hear from us and respond to us in love.
Along with building a case for the importance of prayer, Chad uses stories and compelling insights from the Bible to give practical advice for how to make your prayers more effective. He highlights where we can and should pray and offers tangible strategies to implement a praying lifestyle within the busyness of modern life.
Prayer works! Here's how to connect with God just like He's always wanted.
236 pages, Kindle Edition
Published August 2, 2022
71 people are currently reading
490 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 24 of 24 reviews
August 22, 2022
Veach's book is perhaps the most realistic, compassionate yet encouraging book on prayer I have ever read. Talking with God should be easy, right? Anybody can do it. If we want to be effective in prayer and transformed by it, however, we need to learn to do so. That takes practice and experience.
I like that Veach clarifies that prayer as such is not to be our goal. A vital relationship with God is the goal and prayer gets us on that path. Veach helps us understand what prayer does in, through and for us. Instead of praying to get out of difficulties, for example, Veach encourages us to pray to grow through those times.
I like the straightforward way Veach writes, adding a bit of humor from time to time. I like his pithy sayings. “Don't ask God to guide your steps if you're not ready to get off the couch.” (36) His writing style, often one sentence paragraphs, yields lots of white space on the page.
This is a thinking person's book. I don't mean it is academic. I do mean one must stop and think deeply about what Veach teaches. I was introduced to a new concept, for example, called spiritual bypassing. That teaching gave me much to think about.
This is a good book for Christians, new and old, who want to experience prayer as “raw and real, authentic and honest, unscripted and unrestrained.” (171)
I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher. My comments are an independent and honest review.
I like that Veach clarifies that prayer as such is not to be our goal. A vital relationship with God is the goal and prayer gets us on that path. Veach helps us understand what prayer does in, through and for us. Instead of praying to get out of difficulties, for example, Veach encourages us to pray to grow through those times.
I like the straightforward way Veach writes, adding a bit of humor from time to time. I like his pithy sayings. “Don't ask God to guide your steps if you're not ready to get off the couch.” (36) His writing style, often one sentence paragraphs, yields lots of white space on the page.
This is a thinking person's book. I don't mean it is academic. I do mean one must stop and think deeply about what Veach teaches. I was introduced to a new concept, for example, called spiritual bypassing. That teaching gave me much to think about.
This is a good book for Christians, new and old, who want to experience prayer as “raw and real, authentic and honest, unscripted and unrestrained.” (171)
I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher. My comments are an independent and honest review.
January 29, 2024
This book is profound and practical. Chad Veach’s voice is so casual and friendly. I highly recommend this book for everyone!!
January 16, 2025
This book was encouraging and was cool to read for more perspective on prayer! Some of his jokes were not funny to me but they can't all be winners. Overall, great book! (It took me too long to read this book)
May 12, 2023
This is simply and so straightforward! I really like the authors humor too. The whole book is full of interesting and simple concepts on growing in your prayer journey with God. I will be re-reading this book, I have highlighted so much from the book. It is my favorite book on prayer so far!
September 4, 2022
In Worried about Everything Because I Pray about Nothing, Chad Veach has written a new book about prayer and how we can learn how to pray. The book is divided into three sections, “prayer changes everything… but mainly you, what everybody gets wrong about prayer, and getting better at prayer”.
He stated how we view God affects our prayer life. Another big part that can harm our prayer life is the view we have of ourselves. This in turn changes how we approach God in prayer. He explained how they are both connected. He stated how many of us are more geared to praying to be forgiven and to bless us. But prayer is much more than just that. He looked at how Jesus and Paul prayed. He shared over twenty-five scriptures about who we are in Christ. Some of these included, “I am a child of God, accepted, blessed, free from condemnation, at peace”, and much more.
He begins the book by sharing that his parents were pastors and how he grew up in church. Prayer didn’t become very real to him until he was about 16 years old. He attended an event called Promise Keepers and he had a real encounter with God and this led to his hungry for God. He shared how in his senior year, he partnered with two other friends. They began a lunch prayer group and it eventually grew to the gym cause so many students joined. He also opened up about his daughter, Georgia and how she was diagnosed with lissencephaly, which is a condition that effects the brain development. He shared how he felt a presence and that God would give them grace through this.
I would recommend this life changing book to anyone who is ready to learn how to pray more and to grow closer to God. I immensely loved how he looked about all of the excuses people use to avoid praying and the role shame plays into it. I also loved how he looked at David and his teaching found in the book of Psalms. He explained the five different stages, “pain, processing, prayer, proclamation, and peace” and how David prayed. One of my favorites was the one on proclamation and how he praised Him. I also liked how he explored dangerous prayers and one of the hardest ones was the one that discussed forgiving your enemies and praying for God to bless them. I love how he covered a number of different topics relating to prayer and this book will assist us in growing in our relationship with Christ.
"I received this book free from the publisher, Bethany House/ Chosen for my honest review.”
He stated how we view God affects our prayer life. Another big part that can harm our prayer life is the view we have of ourselves. This in turn changes how we approach God in prayer. He explained how they are both connected. He stated how many of us are more geared to praying to be forgiven and to bless us. But prayer is much more than just that. He looked at how Jesus and Paul prayed. He shared over twenty-five scriptures about who we are in Christ. Some of these included, “I am a child of God, accepted, blessed, free from condemnation, at peace”, and much more.
He begins the book by sharing that his parents were pastors and how he grew up in church. Prayer didn’t become very real to him until he was about 16 years old. He attended an event called Promise Keepers and he had a real encounter with God and this led to his hungry for God. He shared how in his senior year, he partnered with two other friends. They began a lunch prayer group and it eventually grew to the gym cause so many students joined. He also opened up about his daughter, Georgia and how she was diagnosed with lissencephaly, which is a condition that effects the brain development. He shared how he felt a presence and that God would give them grace through this.
I would recommend this life changing book to anyone who is ready to learn how to pray more and to grow closer to God. I immensely loved how he looked about all of the excuses people use to avoid praying and the role shame plays into it. I also loved how he looked at David and his teaching found in the book of Psalms. He explained the five different stages, “pain, processing, prayer, proclamation, and peace” and how David prayed. One of my favorites was the one on proclamation and how he praised Him. I also liked how he explored dangerous prayers and one of the hardest ones was the one that discussed forgiving your enemies and praying for God to bless them. I love how he covered a number of different topics relating to prayer and this book will assist us in growing in our relationship with Christ.
"I received this book free from the publisher, Bethany House/ Chosen for my honest review.”
October 31, 2023
Chad Veach's conversational and approachable style throughout a book sub-titled "How To Love with Peace and Purpose Instead of Stress and Burnout" is welcome for those who may already feel anxious and overwhelmed at the thought of beginning or revisiting their prayer life. Those who may have been exposed to a distant, stoic, and personality-less God may feel reluctant to even consider what a conversation with God could even be like. Veach offers some very helpful ways of beginning and acknowledges there is a tension that can come whenever we're learning something new. And this isn't just for those who are new to relationship with God. This is for many of us who have 'known God' most of our lives but were not modeled a relationship-style approach to prayer/communion with God.
While it might seem like a book I would only recommend to those new to prayer, I know for myself that there have been long periods of time my prayer life with God was non-existant or dry and barren and one reason for this was I prayed the same way for so long. While my relationship with God is distinct from my other relationships, it's not different in the sense that to go to new depths of knowing, understanding, revelation, and intimacy, risk is involved. Trying something new or different than what I've become 'safe' or too comfortable with is part of what helps me know God more.
I appreciate Veach's suggestions of how to embrace creativity, movement, speaking etc into our conversations with God. As someone who has learned to incorporate some contemplative practices into my relationship with God, the suggestions he offers towards the end of the book might encourage readers to discover new (and old) ways of connecting with God and through the process, may come to discover new ways of hearing God's voice.
While it might seem like a book I would only recommend to those new to prayer, I know for myself that there have been long periods of time my prayer life with God was non-existant or dry and barren and one reason for this was I prayed the same way for so long. While my relationship with God is distinct from my other relationships, it's not different in the sense that to go to new depths of knowing, understanding, revelation, and intimacy, risk is involved. Trying something new or different than what I've become 'safe' or too comfortable with is part of what helps me know God more.
I appreciate Veach's suggestions of how to embrace creativity, movement, speaking etc into our conversations with God. As someone who has learned to incorporate some contemplative practices into my relationship with God, the suggestions he offers towards the end of the book might encourage readers to discover new (and old) ways of connecting with God and through the process, may come to discover new ways of hearing God's voice.
February 21, 2025
Worried about Everything Because I pray about Nothing is a book that I can honestly say really transformed my prayer experience from the ground up. Personally, I'm entering a season where I'm trying to be as intentional as possible about my faith, and prayer was always an aspect of faith that confused me because I always thought there was a "correct" way to pray growing up. That thought made me feel like I had been missing the mark my entire life. Reading this book put things into perspective though. It helped me see prayer through a different lense and has changed my mindset as a result. I'm very thankful to have crossed paths with Chad Veach's thoughts on prayer and would highly recommend this book to anyone interested in strenghtening their own prayer life.
December 5, 2022
Very well written book with some great insights. Pastor Chad Veach comes on a little strong for my tastes, but his wisdom is very prevalent, and you can tell he loves every aspect of prayer.
Not a big fan of him preaching about how “subjective” God is, but I get what he means by that. It’s just that that word can misconstrued to mean something entirely different.
However, this book is a solid read overall and a valuable book to get one into praying more often.
Not a big fan of him preaching about how “subjective” God is, but I get what he means by that. It’s just that that word can misconstrued to mean something entirely different.
However, this book is a solid read overall and a valuable book to get one into praying more often.
August 11, 2022
Prayer is a struggle for Followers of Jesus. It’s an oxymoron. How do we not talk to the person we follow? But if you need a reset or for a revived meaning, Chad breaks it down through scripture, principles, and fresh perspective. This read opened my eyes and affirmed a lot of my prayer life. Loved it.
February 26, 2023
Excellent exploration of different kinds of prayers and different strategies to improve your prayer life all focused on what the Bible says. I especially liked his thoughts on "complacent prayers" where we are tempted to pray for something and then do nothing, expecting God to just give us whatever we ask for in spite of our laziness.
January 7, 2023
A solid offering on the basics of prayer. Why it’s important. What it is and what it isn’t as well as practical advice on how to develop a prayer habit.
The audiobook is lighthearted and humorous at times. The book is read by the author.
The audiobook is lighthearted and humorous at times. The book is read by the author.
March 10, 2023
This book has been consistently improving my communication with God. I really feel more peace and less worry and I feel a heightened awareness of the voice of God and it gave me practical ways (backed by the Bible) to pray that I wouldn't have tried if I hadn't read the book. I highly recommend.
July 29, 2023
If your prayer life needs a jolt then look no further. This book is a thoughtful, practical, and revelatory look at prayer and its place in our relationship with God.
August 12, 2023
Loved this book - read it twice.
March 18, 2024
I know the author's parents, which made this book even more meaningful. Well done, Dave and Windi, for creating an amazing legacy of prayer.
April 17, 2024
Timely read!
Loved it, Pastor Chad writes exactly how he talks. So I felt like I was having a conversation with him about prayer.
Loved it, Pastor Chad writes exactly how he talks. So I felt like I was having a conversation with him about prayer.
May 1, 2024
Veach’s podcast (leadership lean-in) is one of my favs, but both books i’ve read by him feel drawn out. not every chapter needs 8 sub-points, but overall still a worth while read.
May 19, 2024
Might be one of my favorite books of all time. So easy to understand, practical, and so much good stuff. Learned a ton, too! Recommend to everyone, of all ages and stages!
July 2, 2024
I would buy/reread this book.
Ch.13 "spiritual bypassing" and Ch.18 "the lost art of listening" were great.
Ch.13 "spiritual bypassing" and Ch.18 "the lost art of listening" were great.
February 8, 2025
Amazing book on what prayer is, what it does, what it is about, and what it means. 100% recommend!
October 23, 2025
Prayer game-changer for me!
January 17, 2024
This is the second book I’ve read that Pastor Chad Veach has written. If you have not read this book, you need too!!
December 30, 2024
In Worried about Everything Because I Pray About Nothing, Chad Veach breaks down the barriers to prayer and he makes the idea of prayer incredibly approachable. Veach demystifies some of the ideas that people often have about prayer and he reminds the reader that it's all about building relationship with God and that's the ultimate goal of prayer no matter how we pray or what we say. I appreciated the straightforward manner and language used to help encourage the reader to pray even when it feels like a daunting task or idea!
August 4, 2023
5 Stars
WOW! I learned a lot from this book. I had the privilege of listening to Chad Veach preach at my church last year right when this book came out. They had this book available to purchase at my church and the title caught my attention so I bought it. This book focuses a lot on how to deal with anxiety and pray throughout all seasons of your life. I enjoyed it a lot and would definitely recommend it especially if you struggle with anxiety like me.
WOW! I learned a lot from this book. I had the privilege of listening to Chad Veach preach at my church last year right when this book came out. They had this book available to purchase at my church and the title caught my attention so I bought it. This book focuses a lot on how to deal with anxiety and pray throughout all seasons of your life. I enjoyed it a lot and would definitely recommend it especially if you struggle with anxiety like me.
Displaying 1 - 24 of 24 reviews