Amy Boucher Pye - 7 Ways to Pray: Time-Tested Practices for Encountering God

This is a delightfully accessible and refreshingly practical guide to prayer, drawing on a broad range of traditions. Amys love for the Lord, and her hard-won experience, shines through every page.

PETE GREIG, author of How to Pray

Whether your prayer life is vibrant or ho-hum, 7 Ways to Pray will draw you deeper into the conversation with God youve always longed for. Here youll find a path forward to the adventure that prayer is meant to be!

ELISA MORGAN, speaker, author, cohost of Discover the Word

What a beautiful, powerful, and personal journey into Gods sustaining presence with the loving and sure-handed guide Amy Boucher Pye. A gentle leader and strong companion, she taps into her uncanny ability to make prayer seem both practical and divine, offering fresh and intentional ways to pray just when we and our hurting world need prayer the most. This will prove a well-loved classic.

PATRICIA RAYBON, author of I Told the Mountain to Move

Were tempted to think of prayer as something that, while it might be essential in some abstract way, exists at the periphery of real life. Amy Boucher Pye insists that prayer carries us into the heart of what it means to be human, into the center of pulsing life. Prayer carries us into Gods expansive world. If we want to be awakened to what is real, if we want to see with the eyes of faith, then we want to learn to pray. And Amy offers us wonderful guidance.

WINN COLLIER, pastor; author of five books, including A Burning in My Bones; director of the Eugene Peterson Center for Christian Imagination

Meister Eckhart, the medieval mystic, summarized prayer by saying, If the only prayer you ever say in your whole life is thank you, that would suffice. Prayer easily becomes a burden for the disciple, when in fact it offers a path into Gods presence, a space free from anxiety. Amy helpfully invites us to explore approaches to prayer where we find rest for our soul.

MICHA JAZZ, head of Waverley Abbey Resources, guardian of St. Cuthberts Oratory

I once read a book on prayer by a well-known author. It was, as I expected, brilliant. But afterward I noticed something: While reading it, I hadnt actually been moved to pray. Not so with this winsome, practical book by Amy Boucher Pye. 7 Ways to Pray not only stirred in me a hunger to know God more; it offered creative and accessible ways to do so. Keep this book close by. Youll be returning to it again and again. Highly recommended.

SHERIDAN VOYSEY, author of The Making of Us, Resurrection Year, and Reflect with Sheridan

What a wonderful, inspirational, and much-needed book! 7 Ways to Pray brings ancient prayer patterns and practices bang up-to-date, making them meaningful and applicable in wonderfully new ways. I cant wait to use this book regularly as a rich but practical companion to prayer it really is a gift to Christians everywhere.

CATHY MADAVAN, speaker, writer, broadcaster, author of Irrepressible

Amy writes with honesty and wisdom from profound experience and learning. Her book is refreshingly practical and accessible for anyone who wants to grow in prayer, and the ways of praying she explores are an invitation to deep encounter and intimacy with God.

SEAN DOHERTY, principal of Trinity College Bristol

I know few people who find prayer easy, which is why 7 Ways to Pray will meet such a great need. It is a practical, easy-to-follow guide to the life of prayer. Full of personal stories from the author and examples from church history, this book will help kick-start your prayer life and revitalize your walk with God.

TONY HORSFALL, author, retreat leader, mentor

Amy has written about tried-and-tested techniques of praying in a fresh and accessible way for a new generation. Each of the seven ways is rooted in stories and offers very practical suggestions to get you praying.

LIZ HOARE, author, tutor of spiritual formation at Wycliffe Hall in Oxford

Prayer is communication with God about what were doing together. No other book offers so many rich and practical ways to go deeper with him. I wish I had discovered 7 Ways to Pray years ago, and I will be keeping my copy close to me in the future.

JAMES CATFORD, chair of Renovar

NavPress is the publishing ministry of The Navigators, an international Christian organization and leader in personal spiritual development. NavPress is committed to helping people grow spiritually and enjoy lives of meaning and hope through personal and group resources that are biblically rooted, culturally relevant, and highly practical.

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7 Ways to Pray: Time-Tested Practices for Encountering God

Copyright 2021 by Amy Boucher Pye. All rights reserved.

A NavPress resource published in alliance with Tyndale House Publishers

NAVPRESS and the NavPress logo are registered trademarks of NavPress, The Navigators, Colorado Springs, CO. TYNDALE is a registered trademark of Tyndale House Ministries. Absence of in connection with marks of NavPress or other parties does not indicate an absence of registration of those marks.

The Team:

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Cover photograph of vine by Ergita Sela on Unsplash.

Back cover photograph of ivy copyright firefox/Depositphotos.com. All rights reserved.

All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version, NIV. Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide. Scripture quotations marked ESV are from The ESV Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version), copyright 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved. Scripture quotations marked KJV are taken from the Holy Bible, King James Version. Scripture quotations marked NJB are taken from The New Jerusalem Bible, copyright 1985 by Darton, Longman & Todd, Ltd., and Doubleday & Co., Inc. Scripture quotations marked NRSV are taken from the New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright 1989 National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

Some of the anecdotal illustrations in this book are true to life and are included with the permission of the persons involved. All other illustrations are composites of real situations, and any resemblance to people living or dead is purely coincidental.

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ISBN 978-1-64158-377-0

ISBN 978-1-64158-379-4 (ePub); ISBN 978-1-64158-380-0 (Kindle); ISBN 978-1-64158-378-7 (Apple)

Build: 2021-08-20 09:22:55 EPUB 3.0

To Nicholas,

who prays faithfully even in the fog,

and to J and A

with hope, faith, and love.

And to those who pray for me

you know who you are.

Im forever grateful.

O N THE WALL IN OUR KITCHEN hangs a chalkboard with these words in my handwriting: Prayer is about being deeply loved.