No Holds Barred
Wrestling with God in Prayer
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- $5.99
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- $5.99
Publisher Description
God wants your whole heart. So let him have it.
Does your relationship with God feel stale and predictable? Do you struggle to find the time and energy for prayer? Then perhaps you’re being too polite with God.
If your prayers lack passion and honesty, then God may be as bored as you are. Guarded and “religiously correct” prayers might sound nice, but to God they sound half-hearted. He wants you to pray with freedom, boldness, and raw honesty.
The prayers we find in the Psalms run the gamut from awed worship to stunned silence to doubt, desperation, and rage. David and others like him had no time for safe, sanitized prayers. They wrestled with God when they prayed–with no holds barred.
Starting today, you can enjoy an energizing intimacy with God. No Holds Barred will help you plunge deeper into different types of prayer–asking, thanking, praising, and confessing. It also will lead you into new forms of praying–prayers of desperation and doubt, prayers that question God’s apparent slowness, prayers that demand answers.
These are the prayers that hold your attention–and that capture God’s attention. Don’t wait any longer to begin a rich new conversation with God.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
As senior pastor of a Presbyterian church in Irvine, Calif., Roberts (Dare to Be True; Jesus Revealed) readily admits that his conservative denomination is not always comfortable with the emotive and often volatile sentiments in the book of Psalms. In fact, his own personal discomposure over the emotionally stark content of numerous Psalms challenged him to the further study that resulted in this book. Citing Hebrews 4:14 16, where Christians are instructed to approach God's throne boldly, Roberts advocates "going toe-to-toe with the Almighty," using the Psalms as examples. Many of the Psalms deal directly with expressing the darker side of human emotion such as vengeance, desperation and doubt, while others, like Psalm 47, take the opposite course and focus on expressing joyful prayer through energetic songs and clapping. Perhaps the most astonishing topic Roberts covers is the prayer of vengeance as found in Psalm 69, where the Psalmist calls upon his enemies to be destroyed. Roberts asserts that even this expression of bitter hatred has its uses, including the eventual healing and reconciliation of the supplicant. Overall, he skillfully dissects the Psalms and pleads for fellow believers to step alongside him, reaping the cleansing power such transparency affords. New Christians and seasoned veterans alike will find some freshly presented and practical prayer disciplines to mull over and implement.
