Daring to Draw Near: People in Prayer

Read this book! It's obvious that John White is truly a man of prayer. His insights on the praying characters in the bible are strewn with insights that couldn't have been discovered unless he himself knows what it means to pray. His expositions on the prayers of Hannah, Paul, David, Daniel, and Joseph are rich and full of understanding. This book will take you deeper into the soul of those who truly knew God and what the prayers of those who truly know Him sound like. It was an inspiration and a refreshment to my soul to read, and it made me yearn for this kind of relationship with God.

Many books have been written concerning prayer, but this particular book does not deal with how to pray but deals with the consequences, or results, of those who took to heart praying to the Almighty God. As a result, they got their answers. This book helped look at prayer from a different angle. I am reading it again for the second time. That's how good the book really is. I highly recommend it.

I found it hard to make it through the first part of the book but after. I got to Hannah's prayer, a light clicked on. Daring To Draw Near helped me look at prayer differently. God is not a distant puppet master ignoring your prayers, but is a very real and present God, longing to hear from you.

This is, without question, the best book on prayer I have ever read. It has dramatically altered the way I pray, both in terms of what things I pray about, and what I expect from God during the exchange. John White is a masterful writer who does not shy away from pointing out what our personal weaknesses might be in our prayer lives. He speaks truth boldy. While reading this book I often felt convicted and saw the need for a transformation of how I pray. Daring to Draw Near will show how our prayers should be more God-centered than they probably are, and that they should be more focused on prayers for "our people" and our community. We are challenged to be honest in our prayers about who God really is and about who we are and what we think. If you read this book, your prayer life (and the rest of your life) will never be the same.

Much of the current attitude about prayer left me confused and discouraged, leading me to believe that prayer changes God and that I simply need to "pray harder" if I'm struggling. Mr. White's book, however, by looking at prayers recorded in the Bible, reaffirmed that our prayers are an important response to an unchanging God. Rather than taking a flippant view of the struggles behind some of these great prayers, he addressed them honestly and in context with other Scripture. Of course, it is good to have a clear understanding of prayer, but this book has played a role in my walk which has been even more important: it has encouraged me to pray more and more.