Book Review

Praying the Lord’s Prayer

Elmer Towns.

In this book the author takes a well known prayer and dissects into its parts.  After reading this book the author states “when you have finished praying the Lord’s Prayer, you have said everything to God you need to say, you know everything you need to know and you have become everything God requires you to become.”

Towns takes the reader through the Lords Prayer line by line.  He divides the prayer into seven petitions and then spends a chapter dissecting each petition by giving examples from both his own experience and the Scriptures. He also gives the reader information about keeping a prayer journal and then ends the chapter with a three step bible study. 

Towns likes lists.  For example when he is describing how to honour God’s name, the list includes the following: God has a name, God’s name is holy, God wants us to praise Him, the Lord’s Prayer can praise God and God will not force anyone to praise his name.  He then goes on to discuss each of these points helping the reader to understand their significance.  He does this with each of the petitions.

At times I found the lists tedious and it felt like he was reaching to find ways of illustrating the petitions.  I found that if I read a chapter each day and then reflected on the overall message of the chapter  I was able to forgive all the lists!

I am very glad I read this book.  It has changed the way I pray.  Each day I mindfully repeat the Lords Prayer (more than once) and meditate on the each petition as I work through the prayer.  I find each time there is a different part of the prayer that I focus on and I also find that this has made prayer more of a focus in my life.  This book is available in the library as other books that focus on the Lord’s Prayer and other parts of scripture.  I am attaching a website that will take you to a pdf of Towns book which you can read at anytime.   

Thanks to Linda Cliff for this week's blog.