GodliPress Team - Isaac Watts a Guide to Prayer: In Todays English and with a Study Guide

As we are aware, there are many books on prayer. Probably too many to choose from. Most of them are more well-known than the one written and produced by Watts several hundred years ago. So, what makes this guide different? How is it more useful? Is it even essential?

Isaac Watts, himself, admits that there is no need to write another book on the same subject; regurgitating facts, knowledge, and ideas that have been covered already. In his preface, he even encourages readers to find those other publications in order to gain more insight into facets of prayer that he does not cover.

So why do we need to read Watts A Guide to Prayer?

The answer can be found in the approach Isaac Watts brings to prayerspecifically, his unique gifts and talents as an educated theologian and philosopher.

Almost every Christian has heard the hymns, When I Survey the Wondrous Cross, Joy to the World, and Our God, Our Help in Ages Past. Watts fame as a songwriter precedes him in this area. The beauty of his words and the reverence in his tunes are still enough to move us into Gods presence to this day.

They almost overshadow the fact that in his day he was an extremely gifted writer and thinker. His skills in forming, laying out, and executing arguments set his works apart. His book on logica detailed insight and guide into what it is, how to use it, and the products of rational thinkingbecame the standard textbook for every university during his lifetime.

In using a similar technique to tackle the subject of prayer, this volume stands out from others covering the same topic. Instead of a soaring, beautifully-penned composition, Watts uses lists, rules, and practical examples. It is his basis for the whole booksignposts and specific guidelines to understand prayer, how to attain it, and how to use it.

This approach becomes very clear in the first chapter under the different parts of prayer, as Watts makes the effort to list samples of actual words that you can use in your own devotions. This detailed assistance is fantastic for those of us who understand the concept but are at a loss to put it into action.

Although Watts makes it clear throughout the book that there is room for us to express our hearts and be led by the Holy Spirit, he is a firm believer in order. He gives us examples of chaotic, confused prayers and how they dishonor God. To help us in this regard, there are rules to follow if we are to succeed in becoming Christians that pray according to the way God ordained it and the way the Spirit often works. Not only that, but he couples these with further suggestions on how to accomplish these regulations.

It may sound legalistic, but Watts reason and heart for doing so are very clearthis is a manual, a teaching tool, a guide. Many of us see others praying with such passion and eloquence, but we are too afraid to ask how to get to that same place. Or perhaps, we struggle with characteristics that trip us up when we want to learn. This book provides detailed answers to every problem or question.

True to his style of thinking, Watts even takes the time to list the objections and arguments we might have to some of his statementsand he provides suitable, biblical replies to keep us focused on the goal of becoming people that pray correctly and effectively.

To be able to access such a treasure of knowledge and direction in our own modern English is an incredible blessing. Written almost 300 years ago, we have done our best to hold on to the heart and ideas without losing anything along the way, and bring this classic in understandable, readable sentences and phrases.

Not only that, but as an added tool, you will find a study guide with brief summaries, tips on how to enhance your time of reflection, and questions that will lead you into a deeper understanding of not only the chapters, but yourself in connection to prayer.

To ask if we need another book on prayer is to miss the point. To see what Isaac Watts brings to a topic many of us struggle to get a grip on is where this wonderful guide shines. It should be on our shelves alongside the other great classics that encourage and equip us as Christians.

Finding God, entering his presence, talking with him, knowing his heart as he knows our hearts; this is the goal of prayerthat God may be all to us as we become all for him.

Love so amazing, so divine, demands my soul, my life, my all

Prayer is such a large and necessary part of Christianity that any assistance is always welcome to those wanting to learn. The inner and spiritual performance of prayer is taught in many excellent books and sermons, but the regular habit has been neglected. The form, method, and expression, as well as voice and gesture, are hardly ever explained, so most Christians have no clear knowledge about them. Yet when these aspects are performed correctly and spiritually, they have a powerful influence on the soul. Both nature and the Bible give us various instructions about different methods of prayer. Now, while there are many institutes of learning that teach us to reason logically and to speak well among people, why should there be hardly any teaching about the rules of speaking to God?

It is wonderful that there are so many ministers using the gift of prayer and doing so honorably and effectively every day, yet they are content to point others to it simply by following guidelines. So, we are taught to pray, as some claim to teach French and Latinonly by rote and repetition. But those who learn by rule as well as by imitation are far better prepared to speak those languages properly on every occasion.

I am convinced that one reason for this neglect has been the divisions among us. Most normal, upstanding people have been discouraged from even trying to master prayer, while the fanatics are divided into two extremes. Some argue for pre-composed, set formats of prayer and will not worship God in any other way. They do not need any other instructions except to be taught to read well, since the words, content, and method of their prayers are already fixed. Other passionate people, in extreme opposition to them, indulge in the freedom of thought and expression, so they will not limit the Spirit and return to carnal rituals because of confinement to rules.

But if the leaders of one side of the debate spent as much time learning to pray as they do reading liturgies and justifying their opinions; and if those on the other side, together with their cautions against quenching the Spirit, had practiced this divine skill themselves, and taught Christians how to pray; I believe the habit of free prayer would be more accepted, and the fire of this controversy would never have brought as much destruction as it already has.

My idea was to write a prayer book without techniques and rules, and I have tried to stick to the middle between the mistakes of those competing Christians on either side.

In describing the nature of prayer, I have not expanded much on each aspect, but I have been careful to divide it into all its necessary parts, so that younger Christians might have some proper content and method when addressing God.