Bill Thrasher - A Journey to Victorious Praying: Finding Discipline and Delight in Your Prayer Life

Dr. Bill Thrashers book should be placed in the hands of every new Christian. This is a splendid invitation to much more than a spiritual discipline, it is a call to an exciting way of life with our personal and loving Lord.

LYLE W. DORSETT

Professor of Evangelism and Spiritual Formation

Wheaton College

Bill Thrasher is a man after my own heartone who lives and walks in prayer and fasting as a normal lifestyle, not dry religious duty. This very solid and balanced book studies how God is always desiring to orchestrate prayer-filled eruptions and expressions from the conditions of our daily life and callingsome which might appear difficult and challenging, but which often bring the most precious and delightful spiritual returns. One of the most truly refreshing studies on prayer to appear in years.

GARY P. BERGEL

President, Intercessors for America/Youth Interceding for America

Bill Thrashers new book is a solid read for anyone who struggles to succeed in making prayer a serious and strategic part of daily life. I think youll find A Journey to Victorious Praying a welcome companion on your path to prevailing prayer.

PHIL MIGLIORATTI

National Pastors Prayer Network

This is a valuable guidebook for the serious believer who wants to move ahead in the exciting miracle of prayer. I trust it will be read widely and be used of God to bring to our churches the prayer revival we desperately need.

WARREN W. WIERSBE

Author and conference speaker

Today more than ever we need to sharpen our prayer life, not to make it more professional, but to make it more effective. In this book, Bill Thrasher helps us understand how. Where we expect to read about courage and strength in prayer, he draws aside the curtain on our weakness and unworthiness. Where we expect to quicken our prayer pace, he counsels waiting. And where we expect to intensify our petition, he speaks of praise. Youll be glad you spent time with this excellent book.

V. GILBERT BEERS

President, Scripture Press Ministries

My good friend Bill Thrasher in his book A Journey to Victorious Praying takes us by the hand on this journey to effectual fervent prayer with well researched biblical instruction, personal affirmations, and powerful demonstrations of the disciplines and delights of prayer. It is my personal heart-cry that God will mightily use this handbook to develop the prayer life of every one of us. Nothing is more needed in the church today.

STEPHEN F. OLFORD

Founder of the Stephen Olford Center for Biblical Preaching

2003 by BILL THRASHER
Preface 2017 by BILL THRASHER

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form without permission in writing from the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews.

All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the New American Standard Bible, Copyright 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. (www.Lockman.org)

A Study Guide is available for A Journey to Victorious Praying
978-0-8024-1811-1

Edited by Cheryl Dunlop
Interior and Cover design: Erik M. Peterson
Cover image of person praying copyright 2017 by PeteWill/Getty Images (182442453). All rights reserved.
Cover image of forest courtesy of Frances Gunn/Unsplash (57423).

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Thrasher, Bill, 1952
A journey to victorious praying: finding discipline and delight in your prayer life/Bill Thrasher.
p.cm.
ISBN 978-0-8024-3698-6
1. PrayerChristianity. I. Title.
BV210.3.T47 2003
248.32dc21

ISBN: 978-0-8024-1563-9

We hope you enjoy this book from Moody Publishers. Our goal is to provide high-quality, thought-provoking books and products that connect truth to your real needs and challenges. For more information on other books and products written and produced from a biblical perspective, go to www.moodypublishers.com or write to:

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Dedicated to the Lord, who delights in the prayers of His people (Proverbs 15:8) and to my wife, Penny, who lovingly prays with me each day; to my three sons, and each member of their growing families, who we view as a gift of Gods grace to us; to my parents, Reynolds and Caroline Thrasher, and my parents-in-law, Bill and Marybelle Bauer, who have lovingly interceded for my life in ministry.

BILL THRASHER is a professor of Bible and Theology at the Moody Theological Seminary of the Moody Bible Institute in Chicago. He is a frequent speaker for churches and retreats across the country, and the author of Living the Life God Has Planned: A Guide to Know Gods Will, Believing God for His Best: How to Marry Contentment and Singleness, Putting God Back into the Holidays: How to Encourage your Family and Friends to Believe God, and God as He Wants You to Know Him published by Moody Publishers. Bill and his wife, Penny, have three sons.

SECTION ONE
The Help of Your Weakness

SECTION TWO
The Help of the Holy Spirit

SECTION THREE
The Help of Companionship

SECTION FOUR
The Help of Scripture

SECTION FIVE
The Discipline of Prayer

SECTION SIX
The Importance of Prayer

SECTION SEVEN
The Help of Fasting

SECTION EIGHT
The Waiting of Prayer

SECTION NINE
The Power of Praise

Friend,

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SELDOM HAVE I MET a Christian who is satisfied with his or her prayer life. After years of walking with God, many of us still struggle with failures in the midst of our successes. We all have read stories of the great men and women of the Christian faith who have diligently sought God and achieved great results. We wish that we could be like them, but alas, we fall short.

This book is worthy of your consideration because of its simplicity and practicality. Here we learn not so much the theology of prayer as the practice of it; we are given examples of how to pray and what to do when our prayer life becomes routine, unsatisfying, and sometimes non-existent. The author gives us help despite our broken resolutions and our failed attempts to join the ranks of the mighty. There is help here for the struggling believer as well as the one who has been on the prayer journey for many years.