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Prayer: Finding the Heart's True Home…
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Prayer: Finding the Heart's True Home (original 1992; edition 1992)

by Richard Foster (Author)

MembersReviewsPopularityAverage ratingMentions
2,522155,830 (4.13)9
Best-selling author Richard J. Foster offers a warm, compelling, and sensitive primer on prayer, helping us to understand, experience, and practice it in its many forms-from the simple prayer of beginning again to unceasing prayer. He clarifies the prayer process, answers common misconceptions, and shows the way into prayers of contemplation, healing, blessing, forgiveness, and rest. Coming to prayer is like coming home, Foster says. "Nothing feels more right, more like what we are created to be and to do. Yet at the same time we are confronted with great mysteries. Who hasn't struggled with the puzzle of unanswered prayer? Who hasn't wondered how a finite person can commune with the infinite Creator of the universe? Who hasn't questioned whether prayer isn't merely psychological manipulation after all? We do our best, of course, to answer these knotty questions but when all is said and done, there is a sense in which these mysteries remain unanswered and unanswerable . . . At such times we must learn to become comfortable with the mystery." Foster shows how prayer can move us inward into personal transformation, upward toward intimacy with God, and outward to minister to others. He leads us beyond questions to a deeper understanding and practice of prayer, bringing us closer to God, to ourselves, and to our community.… (more)
Member:GDQ
Title:Prayer: Finding the Heart's True Home
Authors:Richard Foster (Author)
Info:Hodder & Stoughton (1992), 320 pages
Collections:GDQ High School Library, 9-12 Religious Studies (200)
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Prayer: Finding the Heart's True Home by Richard J. Foster (1992)

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» See also 9 mentions

Showing 1-5 of 15 (next | show all)
Currently reading. A great book about different types of prayers, and their meaning.
  smadden2021 | Jun 14, 2023 |
Comprehensive

This book provided and extremely comprehensive overview of Christian Prayer, drawing on many traditions and writings both ancient and modern.

I read it at a time when I discerned that God wanted to draw me into a deeper relationship with Himself, and the means of doing that was to devote more time to prayer and learn new and exciting ways to pray.

I would have marked it five stars but I felt the book lacked a chapter on how to integrate all these aspects of prayer into an overriding rhythm which can be lived out on a daily basis. Timothy Keller’s book ‘Prayer’ does this well. ( )
  IanGrantham | Mar 23, 2023 |
Easy to read, all you need to know about praying - includes Simple Prayer, unceasing Prayer, Meditative Prayer, Intercessory & Healing Prayer
and many others.
  MenoraChurch | Apr 15, 2022 |
Very unique, not fluff, very deep. ( )
  kevin.torres | Apr 7, 2019 |
I read Richard Foster's Prayer: Finding the Heart's True Home. I didn't much like it. Well there are parts I want to come back to, and I feel guilty criticizing a book on prayer by someone who has far-and-away-better-prayer-life than me, but it really didn't resonate with me. Here is why:

It is divided into three sections which (upward, inward, outward) and Foster relates each section to one of the Trinity. Each section has seven type of prayers which help you achieve one of these dimensions of prayer. It is encyclopedic, and I honestly think I will look back on particular chapters and try the different prayer methods, or suggest particular ways of praying to others I mentor. But despite its usefulness, I found Foster's whole project wrongheaded. I am not sure if what I need is a taxonomy of prayer, as helpful as it is.

I acknowledge that some of my aversion may come from my own experience in regard to prayer. Once upon a time I was at a Charismatic church because I sensed that God wanted me to be open to the Holy Spirit. That church was a great practitioner of healing prayer and taught about it a great deal. I learned some of that there, and was generally open minded. However, one of the pastor's would always suggest that if one 'type of prayer' didn't work, simply try another type of prayer. He would say that each type of prayer 'are tools in our tool box.' At first, I ate up what he was saying because God was obviously doing something through the prayers of the people there, but something about the toolbox comment made me bristle. Finally I figured out what it was.

Treating each type of prayer as a different tool in your prayer tool box, suggested that if you just prayed the right way, God was obligated to answer you the way you wanted him to. Now, nobody said this, and they would nuance this by saying that sometimes God doesn't heal, or answer our prayers. But the use of the tools in the toolbox image was technological and it promoted a sort of formulaic idea of prayer. I found it difficult to jump from the idea of prayer as a tool to prayer as a conversation or communion with God.

Now I know this is a lot of baggage to dump on Foster. But I remain skeptical of lists of ways to pray, in order to achieve this or that objective. I understand that some understanding of the multiple dynamics of true prayer means that you end up talking about it in different ways, but I struggle with this approach. ( )
  Jamichuk | May 22, 2017 |
Showing 1-5 of 15 (next | show all)
Foster's relaxed and emotionally honest reflections upon his own prayer life make the point that seizing upon the sanctity of the ordinary is essential to a rich inner life. Prayer: Finding the Heart's True Home is an essential resource you'll rely upon again and again as you seek to add breadth and depth to your spiritual practice.

 

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God has graciously allowed me to catch a glimpse into his heart, and I want to share with you what I have seen.
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Best-selling author Richard J. Foster offers a warm, compelling, and sensitive primer on prayer, helping us to understand, experience, and practice it in its many forms-from the simple prayer of beginning again to unceasing prayer. He clarifies the prayer process, answers common misconceptions, and shows the way into prayers of contemplation, healing, blessing, forgiveness, and rest. Coming to prayer is like coming home, Foster says. "Nothing feels more right, more like what we are created to be and to do. Yet at the same time we are confronted with great mysteries. Who hasn't struggled with the puzzle of unanswered prayer? Who hasn't wondered how a finite person can commune with the infinite Creator of the universe? Who hasn't questioned whether prayer isn't merely psychological manipulation after all? We do our best, of course, to answer these knotty questions but when all is said and done, there is a sense in which these mysteries remain unanswered and unanswerable . . . At such times we must learn to become comfortable with the mystery." Foster shows how prayer can move us inward into personal transformation, upward toward intimacy with God, and outward to minister to others. He leads us beyond questions to a deeper understanding and practice of prayer, bringing us closer to God, to ourselves, and to our community.

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