Praying With Eyes Wide Open ~ Book Review

Hello Friends!
I apologize I have been rather absent on the blog lately. June has been such a busy month and our Wi-Fi hasn't been working properly right now, so the posts may be a bit sporadic. I have a book review to share today, which I hope you enjoy.

"Praying With Eyes Wide Open" 
By: Sherry Harney
 
 About the book: 

Often we view prayer as an activity reserved for a certain time, in a certain place, offered in a specific way. But Scripture encourages us to pray continually. This exhortation is an opportunity for prayer to permeate every aspect of our lives--when we're alone or in a crowd, when it's quiet and when it's chaotic, when we feel like it and when we don't.

Praying with Eyes Wide Open shows us how to make continuous prayer a natural part of our lives rather than something on our daily spiritual checklist. It helps us encounter God in new ways as we learn to 

- open our eyes to see his presence and the world around us
- open our ears to hear his voice
- open our hearts to experience freedom and power as we pray
- and open our lives as we pray for and with others

Do you want a richer, more transformative prayer life? This fresh take on conversing with your Creator is just what you need.

"Praying With Eyes Wide Open" was a really good book. The author divided this book into four sections: Praying With Eyes Wide Open, Praying With Ears Wide Open, Praying With Hearts Wide Open, and Praying With Lives Wide Open. Each chapter includes four small topics. My favorite sections in Praying With Hearts Wide Open were "The Father is Fond of You", "Warfare Prayer", and "Replace Worry With Prayer." Sometimes we Christians just come to God with our requests and have just a monologue with Him. But we need to have a dialogue with God because He is our Father. And because He is our Father, He likes spending time and talking with us. One of the quotes I really liked in the section on "Replace Worry With Prayer" was this. "Thankfulness is one of the keys to overcome the power of worry." Everything is in God's hands, and we can be thankful He has everything under control, even things we don't understand.
Sometimes it's necessary to pray with our eyes closed, but when we pray with our eyes wide open, we can pray anytime during the day, even in the midst of our busy schedules. I also liked how it suggested using landmarks to remind yourself to pray. For example, if you drive past an unsaved relative's house every day, you can pray for their salvation as you pass it.
This was such an encouraging book that challenged me to pray more, and not just pray with my eyes closed. But pray with my eyes, ears, heart, and life wide open.
The author used plenty of Scripture references, which I appreciate, but they were quoted from the NIV, which I didn't care for. I give this book 4 stars. 

*I was given a free copy of this book from Baker Books.*