Book review: The Hour That Changes the World.
Author: Dick Eastman
Subject: Prayer
This book was recommended and given to me by my pastor who was using it himself and using it as a study on Wednesday nights at our church. To be honest, I was a little skeptical when I first saw it because it looked an awful lot like a "method" for prayer. In my mind the only reasonable model for prayer was found in the Lord's Prayer and anything else smelled of "gimmickry." I could not have been more wrong. First of all, Eastman goes to great lengths to show that what he offers us is rooted firmly in the Bible in every way. What he does is offer an hours worth of prayer broken into 12, five minute segments. The reason he gives for framing it around an hour is found in Mark 14:37 when Jesus asks the disciples if they could not even keep watch for one hour. Thus, Eastman take Biblical examples and applies them to each portion of the hour. They are:
Praise and worship
Waiting on the Lord
Confession of Guilt and Sin
Praying Scripture
Watching
Intercession
Petition
Thanksgiving
Song
Contemplation/Meditation
Listening
Praise
This gives us a well rounded model for use in our own prayer lives. He is clear to express that this is not a model for getting more out of God. In a real sense it is about getting more out of our prayer time and the goal of that should be closer communion with the Lord. You may be thinking, "An hour! I don't have an hour and even if I did I don't know if I could do it." Let me challenge you to try. You will be amazed at how quickly that hour goes by and how you are longing for more at the end of it. Furthermore, it is a flexible model. If you need to spend more than five minutes in one area or another, then go for it! You will find that over time you begin to mold this model to suit your own prayer time and it will revolutionize it. I have nothing negative to say about this book. It is by far the best book on prayer I have ever read. I strongly encourage you to give it a shot and then share it with others because you will want to. Again, this is not about getting more from God, it is about doing prayer in a Biblical way that focuses on Him and not us.
Subject: Prayer
This book was recommended and given to me by my pastor who was using it himself and using it as a study on Wednesday nights at our church. To be honest, I was a little skeptical when I first saw it because it looked an awful lot like a "method" for prayer. In my mind the only reasonable model for prayer was found in the Lord's Prayer and anything else smelled of "gimmickry." I could not have been more wrong. First of all, Eastman goes to great lengths to show that what he offers us is rooted firmly in the Bible in every way. What he does is offer an hours worth of prayer broken into 12, five minute segments. The reason he gives for framing it around an hour is found in Mark 14:37 when Jesus asks the disciples if they could not even keep watch for one hour. Thus, Eastman take Biblical examples and applies them to each portion of the hour. They are:
Praise and worship
Waiting on the Lord
Confession of Guilt and Sin
Praying Scripture
Watching
Intercession
Petition
Thanksgiving
Song
Contemplation/Meditation
Listening
Praise
This gives us a well rounded model for use in our own prayer lives. He is clear to express that this is not a model for getting more out of God. In a real sense it is about getting more out of our prayer time and the goal of that should be closer communion with the Lord. You may be thinking, "An hour! I don't have an hour and even if I did I don't know if I could do it." Let me challenge you to try. You will be amazed at how quickly that hour goes by and how you are longing for more at the end of it. Furthermore, it is a flexible model. If you need to spend more than five minutes in one area or another, then go for it! You will find that over time you begin to mold this model to suit your own prayer time and it will revolutionize it. I have nothing negative to say about this book. It is by far the best book on prayer I have ever read. I strongly encourage you to give it a shot and then share it with others because you will want to. Again, this is not about getting more from God, it is about doing prayer in a Biblical way that focuses on Him and not us.
 | The Hour That Changes the World: A Practical Plan for Personal Prayer, 25th Anniversary Edition By Dick Eastman / Baker A classic book with a 21st century challenge. More than two million Christians around the world have revitalized their prayer lives through the step-by-step plan of prayer outlined in this book. You'll be challenged to spend one hour each day in prayer by dividing the hour into twelve five-minute "points of focus," such as praise, waiting, confession, and Scripture praying. In this special 25th anniversary edition of The Hour That Changes the World, Dick Eastman also extends an invitation for believers everywhere to help form continuous walls of prayer in their communities-saturating neighborhoods and nations with nonstop, focused intercession. Whether you join a wall of prayer or simply apply the twelve-points plan, this book will transform your prayer life. |
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