when I pray what does God do? -- a book review

David Wilkinson's When I Pray What Does God Do? deals with some weighty questions that are at the heart of Christian faith in the twenty-first century:  What happens when we pray?  Does God always answer?  Why does it sometimes feel like he doesn't?  Scientific developments and daily encounters with the pain of unanswered prayer can leave us wondering what to make of the whole topic. Wilkinson -- a scientist and a theologian -- explores these thorny issues, sharing his insights and struggles as he engages with scientific questions, biblical examples, and his own, sometimes painful, experiences of answered and unanswered prayer.

Sadly, so many folks I know treat their prayers as if they're quarters to be entered into the great Universal Soda Machine -- when pressing the right buttons, they expect to receive what they're asking for.  In our prayer lives, we reduce God to a remote doting figure.  Wilkerson, though, will have none of it.  He highlights the ways in which the Bible, and therefore the depth of the Christian faith, understand God as as near as our breathe, and as kind as loving as the Father made known in Jesus Christ.

That's not to say there is in prayer no mystery.  But Christians know that all of life is mysterious, precisely because life is a gift of the God who is himself Life.  In a world governed by that vital grace, this is a book that helps Christians understand and practice the depth of prayer.

It's a must read!

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I received a free copy of this book from Monarch Books in exchange for my honest review here.