A Praying Life: Connecting with God in a Distracting World by Paul E. Miller

I think it is the rare Christian who can say they honestly believe they pray enough. As my pastor often likes to put it, “God is more ready for us to come to Him than we are to go to Him.” Let’s admit it: Prayer is difficult, at least for most of us. Many Christians don’t have an ongoing, consistent habit, routine, or systematic approach to prayer. They may not know how to integrate prayer into their daily life in a natural way. We fall into formulaic praying that lacks sincerity, wondering if we are really connecting with God, and feel guilty when we find ourselves repeatedly distracted and falling short of some externally imposed standard. We find ourselves thinking more about what to say and maybe how to say it than we do about Who we are talking to. At least, this has been my experience.

As a result of his personal journey towards learning how to pray, Paul Miller’s notes were first turned into a sermon series, then developed into a seminar on prayer, which then evolved into his A Praying Life ministry. His wife and some colleagues then encouraged him to write his book, A Praying Life. In the book, Miller begins with a look at why praying is so hard. Here are some observations he makes:

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