One of the best 'Christian' books I have ever read. It really covers the subject well in an accessible and thorough way. In particular it encourages the use of the 131 prayers that are ready made in the Bible apart from those in the Psalms. It asks the questions that sometimes we shy away from when we approach this subject. Very readable and a book that one can turn back to regularly. He has a distinctive easy to read style so typical of many of his other books.

Originally published in 2006. Yancey is one of today’s best known Christian authors, but this is the first time he has written specifically on prayer. The book isn’t yet another on how to pray, it’s more why to pray. It ranges widely, some of the topics being what to pray for, prayer’s impact on us, prayer’s impact on God, and how our view of God changes during life. One anecdote of answered prayer quoted is of when Yancey was in Budapest to deliver a presentation and discovered he had lost the cable for his lap-top. He stood in the middle of a busy street praying, and was approached by a student who spoke English and was able to take him to a computer shop where they had that very cable in stock. Some might say ‘coincidence’, but as Archbishop Temple said “When I pray coincidences happen. When I don’t, they don’t”. Others might say ‘Why should he get his cable, when I prayed for my daughter to be cured of leukaemia, and she died?’