When You Can't Pray: Finding Hope When You're Not Experiencing God

Al Truesdale has rendered a great service to the Church in the form of this little book with a lofty goal: To reach out to those Christians who have become disaffected with the usual forms and practices of worship, particularly prayer. Every local church includes a cadre of such folk, whether we pastors admit to their presence or not. Judging by the exodus of members from our own denominations, and the large chunk of present membership we deem as "inactive," many Christians certainly fall within the parameters of this book's title, and could well benefit from reading it.----------"We assume that with proper guidance all Christians can practice successful communion with God," an assumption the author notes with disappointment. But "people who can't achieve these goals feel like lepers in the Church." For them, prayer is not merely impractical but a "major obstacle" in their quest for spiritual development and faithful service to God. Truesdale counters that God is indeed a God of hope, as the Bible attests, and that our faith has far more to do with God holding us than with our holding on to God. ------------Drawing on case studies gleaned from his many years as a pastor and seminary professor, Truesdale correlates the inner struggles and probing questions of people caught in the crush of life who are yet searching for a satisfying spirituality, with the answers of the Christian faith, especially Scripture. This is no "How-to" manual or self-help pamphlet. Superficial, "try harder" solutions are debunked and dismissed. On the contrary fervent prayer is identified as an intense and enduring struggle in which believers remain painfully aware of the great distance separating the hope of God's coming kingdom from their own experience of the brokenness of life in the present. Ultimately, however, it is that hope which allows us to pray even in times when we feel we cannot. Christians who cannot pray can at least claim the hope of that faith which fills them and uplifts them through the power of the Holy Spirit.--------- "When You Can't Pray" would make for a wonderful adult study guide on the topic of prayer, as well as a useful evangelism tool for reaching those members who have become inactive due to experiences that shattered their naïve faith and sent them running for cover.