Prayer: Experiencing Awe and Intimacy with God

Prayer: Experiencing Awe and Intimacy with God by Timothy Keller
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Perhaps the best book I read in 2014. It’s a one-stop-shop on prayer in contrast to those that deal primarily with theology, or methodology, but not both.

The book is not novel, but rich, drawing from Scripture and the Masters like Luther, Owen, Calvin, Augustine, Edwards, etc.

A lot of the material I’ve previously read on prayer has emphasized the petitionary aspect of prayer. Keller’s book was striking to me in that apart from one chapter (chp 14), prayer was primarily about conversing with God and encountering him. Indeed, this came through even in that one chapter on intercession (chp 14).

In this regard, I noticed that more than one of these Masters associated 1 Peter 1:8 (which talks about rejoicing with joy that in inexpressible) with prayer.

Keller also does a great job showing how prayer must (and gets to!) be tethered to God’s Word, and it is because of that connection that prayer can indeed be a conversing with God. In this context Keller critiques some ancient and modern approaches to prayer that marginalize the place of Scripture, truth, the mind, or the heart.

In short, this is the kind of book that literally changes my life.


View all my reviews