10 of those

Praying for the World: Understanding God's Heart for the Nations

This brief book (of 106 pages) is, in its simplicity and directness, a profound exposition on the subject of prayer. The title and subtitle (Understanding God’s heart for the nations) is somewhat ambiguous until one gets into the real intention of the book which appears to be an expansion of Dr Bruce’s earlier work, ‘World Prayer’. Most Christians of any length of experience would consider that they have a good understanding of the topic of prayer and probably have many good books on the subject. Equally, such Christians probably have a keen passion for souls, the support of missionaries and an awareness of those nations where persecution is rife. BUT this book goes much further than anything that I have previously studied. The book is a careful compilation of extracts from the writings of Hudson Taylor, Oswald Sanders, James Fraser and Will Bruce – All spiritual stalwarts of OMF. These four men reveal a faith forged in the furnaces of affliction, the school of hard knocks, the city of frustration and the university of severe hardship. They know, first hand, what they have written about. In three sections of a total of 60 short chapters (one a day) and over 150 subsections, we are given a series of very practical home-truths about prayer. A few brief extracts must suffice: ‘Self-centredness dies hard.’ ‘Without a prayer-cultivated relationship with God we are liable to be doing our own work in our own way and asking God to bless.’ ‘If prayer is meagre it is because it is supplemental and not fundamental.’ ‘Prayer is not pious day-dreaming; it is spiritual warfare.’ Finally, an extract from Dr Will Bruce: [Rather than] ‘waiting for crisis problems to develop which result in panic praying for others [we should] pray Spirit-led, thoughtful, caring prayers before the problems overwhelm them... We need to engage in major battles, not just minor skirmishes... We need to pray both defensively and offensively.’ This is a very simple book to read but its messages are both profound and very practical. Every Christian should have a copy for regular reference!

Ray Tolley