Peter Adam, Prayerfulness: Cultivating a Bible-enriched Prayer Life. Matthias Media, 2025. 342pp.
Many of us, perhaps all of us, need help when it comes to prayer. We may struggle with a lack of discipline in prayer, with a constantly distracted mind while we are praying, with only praying small prayers, or maybe with praying very little at all. We might also readily feel guilt and inadequacy about our prayer life. Or maybe complacency and a pharisaic self-righteousness.
I am quite confident that wherever you are at with prayer, Peter Adam’s book will be an immense help. To those who already have a strong and vibrant prayer-life, this will book will give further encouragement and enrichment. For those struggling with prayer, it will open up multiple, non-guilt-inducing avenues toward a richer prayer life.
Adam here combines rich theology, biblical depth, personal insight and great practicality. He has a wonderful way of putting profound truths simply and accessibly. Beginning with the question, “What is prayer?” he grounds the whole discussion in the reality that God is relational: “God likes talking, and God likes listening. God likes talking to us, and God likes hearing us when we talk to him” (p9), He proceeds to explore to what it means to pray to a relational God, grounding our prayers in his promises, actions, character and reputation.
While clear and encouraging, the book is also heart-searching. In the chapter entitled “An anatomy of prayerlessness”, he diagnoses multiple factors that may keep us from prayer. He calls us to identify the specific reasons that lead to prayerlessness, urging repentance and change. But the challenge is matched by Adam opening up the world of prayer in inspiring ways. He presses on the reader the richness of a great variety of kinds of praying: prayers of both praise and thanksgiving; prayers of confession and repentance; prayers of lament as we learn to express grief to God; prayers expressing love for God and trust in him; prayers of petition and intercession.
A dominant theme is that the Bible should enrich our prayer life. The entire book is soaked in Scripture; and that reflects what Adam is calling for. He examines how people in the Bible prayed, including a chapter on the Lord’s prayer; and he urges us to learn to pray the Bible back to God, using the words of the Bible in our prayers. He teaches us how to model our prayers on Bible passages, praying the truths of Scripture.
Along with this, Adam strongly advocates writing out our prayers. He challenges the notion that the best prayers are spontaneous while written prayers are artificial and insincere. “Every time we sing a song in church, we are using a prepared prayer or declaration of the truth, usually written by someone we do not know, and often from a different place and time. Every time we listen to a sermon, we are (hopefully!) listening to a carefully prepared exposition of God’s word” (p82). Adam himself daily uses written prayers and includes many of them in the book. He gives multiple examples of prayers based on Scripture passages, prayers of many different kinds, and prayers for every day of the week.
As someone who has never been drawn to written prayers, I found his encouragements challenging and, to my surprise, profoundly helpful. He is not advocating for any kind of repetitious, mindless use of pre-written prayers, but using them as a prompt to pray more widely and deeply than we would if we simply prayed out of what is in our head at the moment. Adam’s daily prayers for himself, for ministry, for other people, and for the world, do that in a wonderful way.
Later chapters address other practical matters: unanswered prayer, fasting, prayer for deliverance from evil, a praying church, and how to plan to pray.
It is abundantly clear that this book is the fruit of a lifetime of prayerfulness alongside a life of ministry. And if the depth and helpfulness of this book were not sufficient reason to buy it, then an added bonus is that it is beautifully presented, making it a delight to use and an ideal gift for others.