Taking Hold of God: Reformed and Puritan Perspectives on Prayer

This book is not what I thought it was. I mean it is but it’s so much more. I bought it thinking that it would be a lot of reformation and Puritan quotes on prayer. Illustrations and things of that nature but in typical Beeke fashion… it is not a shallow well. There is the typical biography parts of the book, so nothing really big there, but there is a diving in of the Holy Spirit‘s role in prayer. I especially appreciated the chapter on the high priest, the prayer, as well as the diving in of the Lords prayer. Doctrinally speaking, I took a lot away from the chapter on adoption. And has prayer is an evidence of faith.

This book is a treasure. The chapters on m Martin Luther, John Calvin, John Knox and Matthew Henry were wonderful to read. The last chapter was also good. I can't recommend this book enough.

This book talks about how several men very important to Christianity viewed prayer and practiced prayer in their own lives.As such it explores many facets of prayer and instructs and challenges Christians in their own prayer lives.It is the best book on prayer I have ever found.

Wonderfully written and laid out. Worth it's weight in gold! Unpacks the doctrine of prayer historically and biblically-all to the glory of God!

I admit that I am a big fan of Puritan writings. Therefore, immediately when I laid eyes on the title: Taking Hold of God: Reformed and Puritan Perspectives on Prayer I was intrigued. The editors, Joel R. Beeke and Brian G. Najapfour, put together a valuable treasure of knowledge and wisdom through this collection of essays. Their intention was that through the uniting of such material the influence of these men (who were so profoundly steeped in experiential biblical truth) would lead us to utilize the same biblical truths and take hold of God ourselves through Christian prayer.The structure of the book flows in a somewhat chronological manner. It starts with Martin Luther, flows to John Calvin, and then it weaves through different essential figures and doctrines till it ends on Jonathan Edwards. The editors point out that these Reformers/Puritans were so steeped in the Bible that much of what they taught was profound meditations and applications of scripture. So even though each article concentrates on highlighting what the Reformer/Puritan taught on prayer, it is nearly impossible to do so without also simultaneously quoting or referencing to scripture.One of the most significant impacts I had from reading this book was all of the original sources it led me to. The essays seemed to open a world of resources to pull and learn from, and to form an incredible bibliography of works on prayer. Some of my favorite sources that it led me to were Martin Luther’s “A Simple Way to Pray,” Matthew Henry’s “Method for Prayer,” and William Gurnall’s “The Christian in Complete Armour.” The book especially challenged me by the amount of thought these men put into their prayers. Their prayers we not merely quick and pointless conversations. They reflected deeply on the reality of prayer as one coming before the holy and Triune God.In regards to this book’s impact on my life, this may sound like a simple and obvious thing I should have already been doing as I prayed, but one of the greatest helps in my personal prayer life that I am taking and implementing is the use of the Lord’s Prayer in Mt. 6. This impact came from the chapter on Martin Luther. Martin Luther was such a proponent of utilizing the Lord’s Prayer as an outline for the “model prayer,” and a portion of Luther’s explanation on this deserves to be quoted at length,Thus, “there is no nobler prayer to be found on earth [than the daily Lord’s Prayer], for it has the excellent testimony that God loves to hear it.” It was one of his encouragements in prayer. He knew that if he prayed it, God would be pleased because God Himself gives it: “We should be encouraged and drawn to pray [it] because, in addition to this commandment and promise, God takes the initiative and puts into our mouths the very words we need, and we shall never doubt that our prayer pleases him and will assuredly be heard. So this prayer is far superior to all others that we might ourselves devise.”I could go on about the different nuggets and essential truths the chapters uncover in the treasury of the Reformers/Puritans writings on prayer, but I will leave you to find the rest.The other helpful thing to note is that Joel Beeke does an excellent job at the end of the book in summarizing and working out sound applications and reflections from the essays bringing it all together quite succinctly. After reading these other chapters, it is beneficial because one can feel overwhelmed and inadequate at trying to implement some of the things brought up. He summarizes the three main principles for “taking hold of God” as1. Plead God’s promises in prayer2. Look toward the glorious Trinity in prayer,3. Believe that God answers prayerThese three principles do well at encapsulating the central themes one picks up from the rest of these chapters.In biblical content: 4/5They do an overall excellent job of tracking down scripture references when it was either directly quoted or closely resembled a teaching found in the scriptures by the Reformer/Puritan.In writing style: 3.5/5As is the case with most books written by multiple authors, you have a collection of different writing styles here, and so this leads to a less uniform read.In accomplishing the goal of the book: 5/5I believe they did an excellent job in bringing together a treasure trove of resources on prayer and enabled to the best of their ability the reader to implement it.Therefore overall rating of 4.25/51. Beeke, Joel; Najapfour, Brian. Taking Hold of God: Reformed and Puritan Perspectives on Prayer (Kindle Locations 495-500). Reformation Heritage Books. Kindle Edition.

Wonderful opportunity to sit at the feet of godly men to be stimulated in prayer.

Love this book

Loving it so far

This book was supposed to be new but instead i got a used one that smelt like very strong perfume, stained on the sides brown marks. On the back smudged and inside had some stains aswell. If i wanted a used book i wouldve got one, but i paid for new. Im sure it will be a good book just dissapointed its used and very very used

Fantástico, material excelente sobre oração!

An excellent book !