Book summary “Prayer”: summary

Introduction

You likely view prayer as a difficult duty rather than a joyful retreat. You struggle with distraction, doubt whether God listens, and wonder why your petitions often go unanswered.

True prayer is the essential imbibing of divine life and aligning our human will with God through silence, persistence, and kingdom devotion.

Richard J. Foster guides you past superficial habits into a profound relationship with God. You will discover how to move from mechanical requests to listening silence, overcome personal and cultural obstacles, and intercede effectively for the world.

How can you learn to pray without ceasing?

• What blocks your communion with God?
• How does your will align with the divine will?
• In what ways does prayer transform you and your community?

1. The Nature of True Prayer

True prayer is not merely the breathing of the soul or a concentrated monologue. If you treat prayer as an inner depth of your own conscience, you remain outside true prayer.

Prayer is the essential imbibing of divine life and aligning our human will with God through silence, persistence, and kingdom devotion.

Genuine prayer starts in the Holy of Holies through inner surrender. You must give up self and recognize that God is completely separate from and higher than human inner states.

Listening Before Speaking

Prayer must always begin with listening to God in silence before you attempt to speak to Him. Before human beings can call on God, He must have spoken to us through His active Word and the Holy Spirit.

You and your communities need to practice silence to recognize what God wishes to say through events, hearts, and divine revelations. You must be quiet in the depths of your souls to perceive God's voice and light before speaking to Him.

• Practice silence individually and collectively to recognize what God wishes to say.
• Be quiet in the depths of your souls to perceive God's voice and light before speaking to Him.

The With-God Life

True prayer is characterized by experiencing a continuous with-God life and relying on the Holy Spirit as the instrumental agent. Prayer is not a faucet to turn on and off, but the imbibing of life itself. The Holy Spirit initiates all true prayer and intercedes when your words fail.

Seventeenth-century theologian Robert Barclay entered silent Quaker assemblies, felt a secret power that touched his heart, and found the evil in him weakening as the good was lifted up.

Jesus condemns boastful, long-winded, and emotional prayers that put human feelings in the place of God. He warns against using big words or praying for a long time under the assumption that wordiness guarantees an answer. Prayer should instead possess the plain truthfulness and brevity of saying yes when meaning yes and no when meaning no.

• Practice silence to recognize what God wishes to say
• Ask God sincerely for His Spirit so He comes and speaks and acts
• Maintain humble, concentrated readiness in prayer

2. Does God Hear Us?

God hears our prayers through His omnipresence, teaching us persistence and disciplined perseverance.

Cycles of the Soul

The prayer life of the soul experiences alternating cycles of abundant spiritual flooding and dry, disciplined perseverance. You may wonder if God is listening when prayers feel heavy and distant.

Teresa of Avila compared the soul with a garden that is sometimes flooded with streams of the Spirit and at other times requires wringing out prayers like squeezing the last drop from something. During dry seasons, you must labor manually to maintain your devotion. God is very near during these times, represented in Hebrew cosmology by the first heaven being the atmosphere around us.

Human rebellion and insistence on your own way hinder prayers and create distance. God never forces His will upon you; instead, He invites you into a conversational relationship and teaches you persistence.

Persistence in Prayer

Effective prayer requires relentless persistence, ardent longing, and waiting patiently upon God without distraction. The parable of the widow before the unjust judge in Luke 18:1-8 illustrates the persistence and ardent longing we learn in prayer.

Peter Riedemann wrote that the person who prays in faith never ceases to make requests to God and allows no other concern to hinder them. Jesus used parables like the persistent widow and the friend knocking at midnight to show that prayer must continue even to the point of suffering and utter destitution. You must learn to trust God through periods of apparent silence.

You can cultivate this perseverance through specific steps:

• Make requests to God continuously without letting other concerns hinder you.
• Wait patiently in confidence when there is a delay in God's response.
• Pray for one definite object with ardent longing and pure motives.
• Keep praying and do not give up.
• Be ready to suffer godforsakenness while praying trustingly.

3. Obstacles to Prayer

Unconfessed sin, selfishness, and cultural individualism block prayer and require the gathered church for transformation.

Sin and Arrogance

Sin, selfishness, and cold arrogance are primary obstacles that block prayers from reaching God. Demonic forces like unrighteousness, impurity, covetousness, and self-will yield only to prayer offered in self-denying love. God dwells solely in purified hearts, rejecting prayers tainted by malice, unconfessed sin, or the cold arrogance of self-justification.

You must deal directly with these barriers before you can move forward in your spiritual life.

• Turn away from wickedness and reject evil with strength and determination.
• Confess all sins and ensure freedom from hate, anger, and quarreling before praying.

The most persistent obstacle to prayer is your untransformed self. This condition is characterized by self-sins and excessive cultural individualism, which can be overcome within the gathered Christian community.

Your personalities, self-esteem, self-justification, and self-importance interfere with God's self-revelation. God uses prayer as a chief means to transform you into the image of Christ, requiring the supportive environment of the church community to overcome rebellious individualism.

C.S. Lewis describes the long and painful process by which God transforms human beings into dazzling, radiant, immortal creatures reflecting His goodness.

The Power of the Body of Christ

The full power of forgiveness and healing dwells specifically within the united church rather than isolated individuals.

An individual focused solely on their own emotional state cannot experience true prayer power. When a united body of believers confesses sins together, agrees on what to ask for, and shares a common life of faith, their collective prayer unleashes divine authority over sickness and sin.

You must look beyond private religion and embrace the church as the true home for your spiritual growth. The body of Christ provides the exact context where your isolated struggles yield to corporate grace.

• Pray for the welfare and overcoming of sickness and sins of the whole church body.
• Maintain complete agreement as a gathered community on what to ask God for.

God uses the ecclesia to reshape your stubborn independence. You find true freedom only when you surrender your isolation to the common life of faith.

4. Praying for the Kingdom

Personal needs must always be framed within the larger context of seeking God's kingdom, righteousness, and will. You cannot separate private requests from the overarching priority of divine rulership.

Personal petitions must be anchored in the active pursuit of God's kingdom, justice, and forgiveness.

The Overarching Pattern

The Lord's Prayer serves as the overarching pattern for all Christian petition. It balances daily bread and forgiveness with the absolute priority of God's name being honored and His rule established. Prayer without active work to build up God's kingdom is described as hypocrisy.

You must shape your daily supplications around this divine model. Place personal requests into the setting of God's all-inclusive power and rulership.

• Place personal requests into the setting of God's all-inclusive power and rulership.
• Devote your whole working strength so that God is honored and His will is done.

Active Work for the Kingdom

True prayer extends beyond personal needs to encompass the coming of God's kingdom on earth. This commitment pushes you into active work for justice, peace, and forgiveness among the bruised and broken of the world.

Using the Lord's Prayer as a model, prayer demands that you forgive those who hurt you and work among the vulnerable. This is a cooperative work with the Holy Spirit to achieve results far exceeding your own labor.

Arnold wrote about praying for the kingdom as Europe stood on the brink of world conflict. He urged believers to follow the example of Jesus on the cross by praying for those who have hurt us, maintaining a perpetual flame of devotion.

You must align your petitions with this active intercession.

• Pray most of all for those who have hurt us.
• Place personal prayers into the larger context of God's rulership being established on earth.

Conclusion

True prayer is the essential imbibing of divine life and aligning our human will with God through silence, persistence, and kingdom devotion. You can integrate these movements of wrestling, releasing, and union into your daily routine by following practical disciplines.

1. Begin your day with silent listening to open your heart to divine guidance.
2. Intercede for others with bold persistence and disciplined perseverance.
3. Examine your life for unconfessed sin and selfishness that block spiritual transformation.
4. Anchor your personal petitions in the active pursuit of God justice and kingdom values.
5. Gather with the faith community to sustain your practice of corporate and individual prayer.

10 Key Ideas

1. True prayer is the essential imbibing of divine life and aligning our human will with God through silence, persistence, and kingdom devotion.
2. Prayer must always begin with listening to God in silence before you attempt to speak to Him.
3. The prayer life of the soul experiences alternating cycles of abundant spiritual flooding and dry, disciplined perseverance.
4. Effective prayer requires relentless persistence, ardent longing, and waiting patiently upon God without distraction.
5. Sin, selfishness, and cold arrogance are primary obstacles that block prayers from reaching God.
6. The most persistent obstacle to prayer is your untransformed self, characterized by self-sins and excessive cultural individualism.
7. The full power of forgiveness and healing dwells specifically within the united church rather than isolated individuals.
8. Personal petitions must be anchored in the active pursuit of God's kingdom, justice, and forgiveness.
9. True prayer extends beyond personal needs to encompass the coming of God's kingdom on earth through active work for justice, peace, and forgiveness.
10. You can integrate the movements of wrestling, releasing, and union into your daily routine by following practical disciplines of silence, intercession, self-examination, and community gathering.