This book is the antithesis of every “traditional” book about prayer. It is light, engaging, entertaining, and honestly compelling. The authors dare to ask the questions about prayer many of us choose not to say out loud. For a thought-provoking, entertaining book on prayer, this book fits the bill.

From the Back Cover:

“Please, Lord, let the officer give me a warning instead of a ticket, and I promise I’ll never speed again.”

“Oh, God, please don’t let him die.”

“Why me, God?”

“Is anyone out there?”

Does God hear your prayers?
Does he answer them?
When he doesn’t, do you blame yourself for not praying hard enough or in the right way?
And is there a secret, sacred formula for always getting the answer you hope for?

Maybe you believe God answers prayers.
Maybe you don’t.

Whatever your thoughts about prayer, take a moment to set aside your preconceptions, look beyond your past experiences, and ask yourself, What if God always does answer our prayers—just not the way we expect him to?

From the Front Flap:

Is it okay to pray for selfish things?

Does a desperate “God help me!” count as a real prayer?

Is a quickly tossed up “prayer-thought” as likely to be answered as a carefully articulated and well-thought-out prayer prayed on your knees before the sun rises?

We all have an impulse to pray, but sometimes when we don’t get the answers we expect, we question whether we know how to pray the right way.

In Six Prayers God Always Answers, Mark Herringshaw and Jennifer Schuchmann point out that the most authentic prayers may not look, feel, or smell like the ones we were taught in Sunday school. Using illustrations from the Bible, history, and pop culture, they demonstrate that prayer isn’t about a specific posture or a recitation of words, but rather the foundation of a relationship—a relationship where some unexpected results can occur.

If you’re frustrated because it seems your prayers often go unanswered, Six Prayers won’t show you how to pray better, but it will show you how to discover the answers you may have overlooked, and how relationship matters more than the words.

Table of Contents:

Contents

1 Prayer Doesn’t Work   1

2 Trading Floor of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange   19

3 Stupid Shapes, Weird Colors, Crooked Necks, and No Screw Tops   43

4 The Prayer God Rarely Answers   63

5 Rapists, Murderers, and “Why Does He Get to Sit Next to the Window?”   89

6 Chapter 11   115

7 The Prayer God Doesn’t Want to Hear   143

8 “Verily, Verily, I Say Unto Thee: Be Ye Selfish”   167

9 “Please, Sir, I Want Some More Gruel”    195

10 The Prayer God Hates to Answer—But Will   217

11 Some Were Praying to a God They Didn’t Even Know   241

Notes 257

An Acknowledgment of Prayers Already Answered 265

About the Authors 269