When You Pray: Thinking Your Way into God’s World

When life becomes complicated with problems too painful to face, we seek refuge -- we turn to God as a way of turning off the world. For Dr. Hall, prayer is more than a shield from trouble or a source of comfort. He calls Christians to experience exciting prayer possibilities that lift us out of our self-concern into a vital worldly stewardship in harmony with the purpose of the gospel.

Rather than a ＂how to＂ guide, this thoughtful study asks two significant questions: ＂What is prayer?＂ and ＂What should we be doing when we pray?＂ Exploring the nature of prayer and the relationship between prayer, thought, and action, Hall observes, ＂Love for God and love for the world are not alternatives; they are part of the same seamless robe.＂ Through prayer, ＂God separates us from the world in order to send us back into the world with renewed spirits...＂

These Bible-based perspectives challenge believers to develop more disciplined, thought-directed prayer. This is the kind of prayer that leads us to act in obedience to Christ -- to love, comfort, and forgive others; to liberate those suffering oppression much greater than our own; and to mature in discipleship to the world.

Douglas John Hall is emeritus Professor of Theology at McGill University in Montreal, Quebec. Among the most widely read theologians in North America, Hall has written very popular and acclaimed works like ’Lighten Our Darkness’, ’God and Human Suffering’, and ’Why Christian?’ as well as a full-scale trilogy in systematic theology: ’Thinking the Faith, Professing the Faith’, and ’Confessing the Faith’, all from Fortress Press.