When You Pray: Making the Lord's Prayer Your Own [Paperback]

Philip G. Ryken (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback: 206 pages
• Publisher: P & R Publishing (October 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1596380527
• ISBN-13: 978-1596380523
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.5 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #964,090 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Philip Graham Ryken (PhD, University of Oxford) is the 8th president of Wheaton College and, prior to that, served as senior minister at Philadelphia's historic Tenth Presbyterian Church. He has written several books for Crossway, and has lectured and taught at universities and seminaries worldwide. Dr. Ryken and his wife, Lisa, live in Wheaton and have five children.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great work on the Meaning of Prayer - I benefited Greatly., January 22, 2007

By 

Books and Woodworking (USA) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: When You Pray: Making the Lord's Prayer Your Own (Paperback)

The Lord's teaching on prayer seems so simple, why study that? But we all need to read a book like this to show us what it means to pray and why Jesus taught us to pray this way.

This is another wonderful book by Philip Ryken. I love his style of preaching - he is a great communicator. As usual I used red pencils to mark up and make notes all over the book.

The first 3 chapters of this book are a Bonus I did not expect. They are some of the teachings by Jesus on prayer that are not included in the Lord's Prayer. They make a great introduction to the subject of prayer. Very Nice!! If you buy this version of the book from P&R Pubishing, you get these extra bonus chapters. Well worth it.

1) How to Pray Like a Hypocrite.

2) How to Pray Like an Orphan.

3) How to Pray Like God's Own Dear Child.

His 4th chapter on "Our Father in Heaven" gives the meaning of Father as Jesus used it and shows the proper balance between "familiarity" with the Father and "reverence" for the Father.

Every chapter is very well done, but one other chapter that I also really enjoyed is the 11th chapter on "Lead us Not into Temptation". He does a great job on talking about the distinctions between "Testings", "Trials", and "Temptations". He gives great cross-references for these terms and shows clearly what they mean. I will be able to use this information when I teach many other parts of the Bible. This is good to know and something Christians should be aware as we study the rest of the Bible. "Testings", "Trials", and "Temptations" are throughout the Bible, from Genesis to Revelation.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Excellent!, November 28, 2006

By 

Tim Challies (Oakville, Ontario) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: When You Pray: Making the Lord's Prayer Your Own (Paperback)

When I was a child my parents explained to me how important it is to make time every day for reading the Bible and praying. Wanting to please them, and knowing it was the right thing to do, I began to have a brief period of devotions each day before bed. I do not remember a whole lot about how I conducted these devotions, but I do remember struggling with whether or not it was acceptable to pray the Lord's Prayer instead of praying a personal prayer. Though it is given by Jesus as a model of prayer, for some reason it seemed to me to be a lazy option. When I was tired and worn out after a long day of saving the world or teasing my sisters, I'd often collapse into bed, pray the Lord's Prayer, and fall asleep. In so doing I treated the Lord's Prayer as a magic prayer that contains power simply because it comes directly from Scripture. I put little of my heart and little of my mind into the prayer.

Of course there is nothing wrong with praying the Lord's Prayer. While it may serve primarily as a model of prayer, it is a wonderfully profound, yet simple prayer and one we would all do well to study and meditate upon. When You Pray by Philip Ryken is a helpful tool for doing just this (Note: the book was published in 2000 by Crossway under the same title. It has been reissued in 2006 by P&R Publishing Company). It is "a practical exposition of the Lord's Prayer from Scripture. The more we pray, the more deeply we are drawn into communion with God. And the more we study the Lord's Prayer, the better we are able to pray. So perhaps an exposition such as this one can help us draw closer to our heavenly Father."

The book begins with three chapters dealing with how we are to pray. Ryken teaches first how to pray like a hypocrite, then how to preach like an orphan, and finally how to pray like God's own dear child. Ten chapters follow, each of which discusses one of the phrases or petitions of the Prayer, beginning of course with "Our Father in Heaven and closing with "The Power and the Glory." Ryken shows how this prayer can be prayed as-is, but also how it ought to model our other prayers. It is easy to read and simple to digest and with fairly short chapters it is ideally suited for use with personal devotions or for group study (and, in fact, there are useful study questions at the end of each of the chapters).

When You Pray is the kind of book that may slip by almost unnoticed, and this is a shame, for it is an excellent resource. It is one that is well worth reading and will doubtless prove a valuable addition to any library. I enjoyed it a great deal and am glad to recommend it to you.

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great Insight Into the Lord's Prayer, January 22, 2006

By 

CSK (Drexel Hill, PA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: When You Pray: Making the Lord's Prayer Your Own (Paperback)

It was a privilege to hear these chapters preached as sermons in 1998, and the book is a treasure still. Dr. Ryken is gifted in explaining the doctrines of salvation, sonship, the fatherhood of God and adoption. The chapters "How to Pray Like a Hypocrite", "...Like an Orphan," and "...Like God's Own Dear Child" were life-changing for me. These chapters expound on the character of the loving Father who gave us the Lord's prayer. They also give understanding and insight into our identity as God's adopted children.