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| Prayer: Does It Make Any Difference? | 
 enlarge | Author: Philip Yancey
Publisher: Zondervan
Category: Book
List Price: $21.99
Buy New: $9.92
You Save: $12.07 (55%)
Buy New/Used/Collectible from $7.66
Avg. Customer Rating:  (66 reviews)
Sales Rank: 5240
Languages: English (Original Language), English (Unknown), English (Published)
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 352
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.3
Dimensions (in): 8.9 x 5.9 x 1.2
ISBN: 0310271053
Dewey Decimal Number: 248.32
EAN: 9780310271055
ASIN: 0310271053
Publication Date: October 1, 2006
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Customer Reviews:
 How do I connect with God? August 7, 2007
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
Philip Yancey has been a mentor to me through his books, particularly in the area of pain, suffering, injustice and Where is God in the midst of all of these questions and issues of life. This is a book that encourages us to pray and does not skirt the thorny issues as to why we do not. He uses people that he knows personally that have had prayers answered, been challenged or who have difficulties with God.
He covers 5 sections in this wonderful resource on prayer: Keeping company with God, unraveling the mysteries, the language of prayer, prayer dilemmas and the practice of prayer. He also has other good resources on prayer which are of benefit. I so appreciate his honesty and what happens when things do not turn out like one has expected.
He also draws insight from many different perspectives and many different ways to pray such as the following Franciscan Benediction;
May God bless you with discomfort
At easy answers, half truths, and superficial relationships
So that you may live deep within your heart.
May God bless you with anger
At injustice, oppression, and exploitation of people,
So that you may work for justice, freedom and peace.
May God bless you with tears
To shed for those who suffer pain, rejection, hunger and war,
So that you may reach out your hand to comfort them and
To turn their pain into joy.
And may God bless you with enough foolishness
To believe that you can make a difference in the world,
So that you can do what others claim cannot be done
To bring justice and kindness to all our children and the poor.
Amen
God spoke to me, encouraged me and challenged me to pray more through this book and he will do the same for you.
Reassuring a skeptic July 6, 2007
2 out of 3 found this review helpful
I have read most of Mr. Yancey's books and find them reassuring. Why? Because they're transparent. Not every Christian is able to have a nice, simple faith in a God of their childhood. Some Christians' minds want to continue to seek truth i.e. does prayer really matter? Yancey opens up to us with his own concerns, doubts, conflicts. I find it reassuring because Mr. Yancey deals with issues honestly but maintains a basic fundamental belief that Christ lived, died, and rose again for our sins. Now what? The convergence of faith and intellect in his books reassures me that questioning traditional tenants of Christianity is OK. He constantly challenges me to re-examine my faith. Should I pray? Yes. Does it matter? Read the book.
A Spiritual Theology of Prayer July 1, 2007
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
Philip Yancey is one of the most honest Evangelical authors. Reading his work is like listening to an echo of your own secret questions that you never dared to raise or admit to in Evangelical circles.
Such is certainly the case with "Prayer: Does It Make Any Difference." Yancey's work blends well with Larry Crabb's book "The Papa Prayer." In Crabb's writing, readers receive a formula for relational praying. In Yancey's writing, readers receive permission to struggle honestly and relationally with a God who cares, but does so in mysterious ways. Yancey fully addresses the deep longing of the human heart for certainty and assurance and how our partnership with God in prayer intersects with that desire. This is no easy-answer book. It nails head-on our passionate pursuit of God through prayer.
Reviewer: Bob Kellemen, Ph.D., is the author of Beyond the Suffering: Embracing the Legacy of African American Soul Care and Spiritual Direction , Soul Physicians, and Spiritual Friends.
 3.5 stars June 25, 2007
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
The Bible clearly states that God is omniscient, knowing all aspects of life from the genesis of time to beyond its end, and unchanging. Yet, Christians are still told to pray, despite the fact that if you think about it, everything about life is somehow already ordained. Does prayer make a difference, then? What is prayer? Is there a right way to pray? These issues and more are addressed with frankness and honesty in Mr. Yancey's latest book. All the answers are not definitively given, but this guide will help you in your path towards a measure of comprehension and perhaps give you peace about what you cannot completely grasp.
Amanda Killgore
Thoughtful and challenging June 23, 2007
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
Philip Yancey is one of my favourite Christian authors. Always thoughtful, always incisive, he challenges pat answers and glib solutions. He is always willing to look past the miracle testimony to the situation that didn't work out as we had hoped, to the many that live with pain and disappointment and to point them to God anyway, because life is about a journey not a destination, about relationship and not success.
And so he has written, as expected, a complete, exhaustive and helpful book on prayer - not so much on how to pray - as he points out, there are plenty of manuals around - but more on why we should pray.
He comprehensively outlines that we should pray not for what we can get but because of who God is, and who we are. We don't pray to inform God or to change God, but to get to know God and to be changed in his presence. He writes of the need to pray not to impress others but to share our heart with God, to pray as a lament as quickly as in gratitude. He calls us to pray in support of others - and if not for their miraculous salvation then at least to turn our hearts from ourselves towards others. And if we can find no other reason to pray, we should do it because Jesus did and he clearly made it his priority to do so. All of this is good stuff and to follow his advice would see us as better disciples of a God who calls us to run the race and not give up.
The sub-title of the book is 'Does It Make Any Difference'. And if I can take issue with this book, it is here. When I read Reaching For the Invisible God, I felt that there was someting missing. Yes it is good to continue to believe without evidence - that is the very nature of faith, after all. But I wondered where was the space for the infilling of the Holy Spirit, the room for God's miraculous power and the authority of Jesus given to the church? In this book, although Yancey notes that there appear to be reports (particularly from the Third World) of confirmed miracles, he clearly does not believe that the average believer should expect miraculous answers to prayer. Indeed we the church are often called to be the answers to the very prayers we pray. But while I cannot explain how or why God chooses to sometimes perform miracles and sometimes not, as a Spirit-filled believer I do think that there is a place for great faith.
I come away from this book feeling as though Yancey does not see this as appropriate in our times. I finished the book thinking that I agree with everything in it, and yet there is more that was left unsaid. We should trust and love God irregardless of prayer being answered as we would like, yes, but we should also believe on God for supernatural provision and to stand on the authority given to us as believers to see circumstances changed.
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