Book Review: "Handbook to Prayer: Praying Scripture Back to God" by Kenneth Boa

I received my hardcopy of "Handbook to Prayer" today. However, I've been using this resource for a few years. With the only exception of Peter Lord's "2959 Prayer Plan", this book has been the most influential and beneficial tool I've used to assist my prayer life.

The heart of this book is the 90 day prayer guide. The author recognizes that Christians desire to spend time in God's Word and time in prayer but have trouble bringing the two together. He further realizes that the most powerful praying is done when we are using God's Word to inform our prayers. After all, "God's Word won't return to Him void", right?

Therefore, the author came up with a tool that guides the reader's prayer time. Each day, for 90 days, he personalizes at least one passage of Scripture under each of the following prayer headings:
 1) Adoration,
 2) Confession,
 3) Renewal,
 4) Petition,
 5) Intercession,
 6) Affirmation,
 7) Thanksgiving, and
 8) Closing Prayer.
You can read the verses, meditate on them, and then pray them to the Lord.

Just a few of the benefits I've gained from this tool are:

• My prayers are balanced (I'm not just offering up petitions; i.e. "me, me, me")
• It enables me to successfully combine Bible intake with prayer.
• I have also enjoyed those occasions when the verses for that day were exactly what I needed.

Most certainly, this tool does not replace my regular Bible intake. I try to read the entirety of Scripture each year. Yet, this tool comes alongside my regular Bible intake to help me enjoy a deeper fellowship with the God who wrote the Bible.