Prayer
Conversing With God
The classic study guide on conversational prayer that has revolutionized
the prayer lives of millions.
© 1959, 1970 Rosalind Rinker
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Zondervan Publishing House || Grand Rapids, Michigan
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1. Prayer ; 2. Prayer —
Christianity
BV21.2.R5 ~ LCCN:
59004291 ~
OCLC:
9818033 ~
120p.
Prayer : Conversing With God is presently held by 255 libraries including Fuller Theological Seminary and the Library of Congress
TABLE OF CONTENTS
1. Three Prayer Meetings 13
2. Prayer Is a Dialogue 21
3. What Is Conversational Prayer? 24
4. To Whom Should We Pray? 29
5. Prayer Begins a New Relationship 36
6. Why Pray Aloud Together? 40
7. Why Pray Alone? 48
8. What Is Faith? 54
9. What Is Unanswered Prayer? 62
10. What Are Faith-Sized Requests? 68
11. When People Pray Together 74
Appendices
A three-day devotional study for new believers
A seven-day devotional in the art of meditation and worship
Heart-Searching Scriptures 113
A two-hour personal meditation
PREFACE
I have discovered that prayer's real purpose is to put God at the center of our attention, and forget ourselves and the impression we are making on others.
The content of this book is largely autobiographical, because there was no other way to describe the intimate experiences through which God took me in learning the true meaning of prayer.
The title might have been, Matthew 18:19, 20 or When Two or Three Agree, for the book is based largely on the meaning and contents of those verses. Through a period of more than twenty-five years of my Christian life, I fought the various hindrances to prayer and finally discovered that in the very things that bothered me, lay the key to the new and wonderful lessons God had for me. As I have shared these with various groups, I have seen others find the simplicity of conversational prayer transform and light up the meaning of prayer. One group which spent most of the time singing and giving requests and only about five minutes in prayer, reversed the process and began to pray conversationally. With joyful astonishment they found they wanted to spend a whole hour praying together!
Group prayer has lost its meaning for many of us, so that any excuse is a good excuse for not going to a prayer meeting. Praying conversationally (that is, praying back and forth on a single subject until a new one is introduced by the Spirit) makes prayer such a natural means of "spiritual togetherness" that the healing love of God touches us all as we are in His presence. Meeting the Lord in this way brings us to the anticipated realization of what it means to be consciously with Him, and to belong to one another as brothers and sisters in Christ.
I would like to express my deep appreciation to all those
Page 10
who have encouraged and helped me continue my search for reality in prayer. To the missionaries with whom I worked in China, to the staff and students of Inter-Varsity Christian Fellowship in America; to the Rev. Mr. Harold De Vries, Winnetka Bible Church, Winnetka, Illinois, Rev. Mr. George Wingard, First Methodist Church, Otsego, Michigan, Rev. Mr. Paris Reidhead, Gospel Tabernacle, New York City, the directors and participants of Mound Keswick, Cedar Lake and Cannon Beach Bible Conferences, for the privilege of actually testing the material in this book, my heartfelt thanks.
For her daily sharing with me in prayer and for her encouragement and help with the manuscript, I am deeply grateful to Eugenia Price, with whom I am associated in the great adventure with God.
ROSALIND RINKER
Chicago, Illinois
August, 1959
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* * * * * * * *
To
MY MOTHER
who led me to Christ
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