I could not get into this book, sorry. Trying to clean up my netgalley. Didn’t realize that I was forgetting to leave reviews on netgalley itself, My apologies.

Requested as an advance reading copy from NetGalley, this book is sub-titled 7 Days of Praying With Jesus.

I didn’t really know what to expect, and my initial judgements on the cover didn’t really match with what I got inside, if I’m honest I found the cover a little boring, and what was inside was anything but.

Each of the 7 days of the book covers a different section of the Lord’s prayer, breaking it down and getting into what each line actually means; what it meant at the time Jesus said it and how it still applies to our lives now. In the author’s words:

“In this prayer are seven requests. In this prayer is the secret to discovering the heart of God. To pray these seven requests is to journey deeper into life with God and deeper into life in the world.”

There were so many ‘aha!’ moments for me while going through this book, parts of the Lord’s Prayer that I’d never interpreted in that way before. It’s a simple sounding prayer that we pray all the time, but breaking it down and going through it over 7 days really helped me to understand what it is I’m actually praying, for example this quote from the “Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil” section:

“When we ask God to lead us not into temptation, we are praying that He will give us grace to face, courage to endure, and power to overcome every lie of the enemy that would cause us to question God.”

One of my favourite features of the book was the reflection space at the end of each day. Giving space for personal prayer and reflection on what we have just read, but also providing prompts and starters for those who either are unfamiliar to prayer or just unsure what to pray or can’t find the words.

I think this will be very valuable for both those who are new to praying and the Lord’s prayer, but also for those who have said the prayer so many times it has become almost routine.

I lost count of the amount of quotes that I highlighted through this book, but just know that if I put them all into this review, I’d probably be in danger of publishing the book myself!

One that really stuck in my mind from towards the end was this one:

“Prayer is like a spiritual space telescope, lifting us far above the earth’s perspective to see the entire cosmos similar to the way God sees it. As we pray, glimpses of invisible galaxies come into view.”

I also particularly loved the closing chapter, with all its comparisons to Lord of the Rings. The familiarity made me smile, but also really made me think.

I would really recommend this book to anyone whether they are just starting out praying or long-time Christians. I’ll definitely be recommending it to my church life group as a shared study, it was simply fantastic. The only thing I’d say is that I’d definitely suggest getting this book as a physical copy, not an ebook, as the reflection spaces would definitely benefit from being able to actually write in the book.

I think I fell in the wrong audience group for this book. If you are new to prayer and feel you don’t know where to start; then this is a great book to get you going. It is structured to help you meditate on what you’ve read that day. And it has these nice practical pages with prayer structures empowering you to write down your prayers and thoughts.
But if like me you were looking for growth and depth then maybe this is not the way to go.

In Journey in Prayer: 7 Days of Praying with Jesus author John Smed challenges readers to investigate the Lord's Prayer and to begin to use it as a pattern for prayer. Taking seven requests from the Lord's Prayer, Smed shows readers how the Lord's Prayer helps them discover God's heart and know him more deeply. The book is full of biblical teaching, practical application, and personal examples of prayers drawn from the Lord's Prayer.

While it's always nice to have the portability of an ebook, Journey in Prayer is probably best enjoyed and savored with a hard copy in hand so you can make notes, answer questions thoughtfully, highlight, and doodle. Readers who take time to savor and sit in the beauty of God's Word as they study and pray through the Lord's Prayer will likely find they are journeying into God's presence in new and exciting ways. Whether you've been a believer for a long time and wnat to refresh your prayer life, or you're a new beliver who's not quite sure how to pray, either way you'll find plenty of inspiration in Journey in Prayer.

Note: I received a copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for this honest review. The opinions expressed are my own.

Journey in prayer by John Smed is a book that helps the reader grow in prayer and faith by taking a closer look at the Lord’s Prayer. I think this book would be a great tool for any small Bible study group, Sunday school class or even for personal use.

First sentence: My journey in prayer begins in a monastery garden.

Journey in Prayer: 7 Days of Praying with Jesus is centered around the Lord's Prayer. Books about prayer abound. There are books that focus on the why, the how, the when, the where. Just about any aspect of praying--there's a book that covers that aspect exactly. Even so, I find Journey in Prayer to be hard to classify.

The Lord's Prayer is the jumping off place certainly. But it's more the spring to get you lifted up and going. It isn't grounded and rooted into learning more about The Lord's Prayer, not really. It's more like the Lord's Prayer is the stone you throw in the water, and these devotions, these studies are the ripples that follow. I wouldn't classify this one as saturated in Scripture so much as saturated in feelings, emotions, stories, illustrations, quotes.

The book has a lot of blank spaces for readers to write in. This is supposed to be an immersive, interactive journey. One can only gain by actually doing the exercises. Theoretically speaking of course.

If you are seeking out a book on prayer--in general--I'd go elsewhere. If you are seeking out a book on the Lord's Prayer specifically, I'd definitely go elsewhere. It perhaps is lacking a little in depth and substance, but has plenty of width. It's like a swimming pool that's only two feet deep. Depending on where YOU are in your faith journey, you may or may not benefit from reading it.