Dangerous Prayers

An easy read but convicting book nonetheless. The layout and flow of the three parts/prayers(search me, break me, and send me) based off of three biblical verses make sense in their progression and they work beautifully together. It is a quick read with sharp, succinct points and at times some repetitive thoughts/themes, but also there is practical and implementable thoughts and advice from start to finish. Throughout, Groeschel opens up about hardships and experiences from his own life, pointing out how through choosing the difficult prayer path that he lays out in this book, you may experience God-glorifying satisfaction and growth in Christ, letting go of your own desires and fears and trusting God in a real, open, and honest way; inviting God to really be Lord of your life on a daily basis. He begins with the Search Me prayer where he invites you to ask God to show you what you fear the most and where you have shortcomings so you are able to move from fear to faith and are driven to depend on Christ and not yourself. Sounds simple enough, but is an essential practice to grow in a humility that allows you to hear from God about anything in you that He wants to change to look more like Him. Groeschel then talks about the Break Me prayer, potentially the most difficult one of the three to pray in my own life, but also probably one of the most essential to grow in dependence on God. Inviting God to break us sounds scary because we are (at least I am) afraid of the consequences that might come from this, but Groeschel beautifully illustrates the freedom that can actually come from this process of ‘breaking us', and how it can lead to a reliance on God, and actually experience God's greatest blessing, giving up fears we are tempted to hold onto otherwise. I think the quote referenced from [a:A.W. Tozer 1082290 A.W. Tozer https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1251928254p2/1082290.jpg] [b:The Root of the Righteous 697657 The Root of the Righteous A.W. Tozer https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1347261043l/697657.SY75.jpg 683975] challenges me well; “It is doubtful whether God can bless a man greatly until he has hurt him deeply.” Groeschel challenges us that it isn't actually in our strength that we may experience the most from Christ but in our weakness, for God to break us of things that we don't even know we needed to have removed and has to be done through surrendering to Christ where our dependence upon Him grows and freedom from having to carry our own salvation or ‘good works' is found. Lastly, the Send Me prayer, is an outflow to submit to God daily, to not ask what God can do for me, but to ask ‘God, what can I do for you?'. Over time it will shift our prayers from self-focused requests into gospel-powered, God-glorifying prayers. Instead of asking for God to do this for me, to bless or help me, but to ask God to allow me to be a voice of encouragement today, to help someone in need, show your love to someone hurting, anything to help someone, that God, here I am, send me.Thought provoking book, that makes me think about a question Groeschel poses, “if we get bored praying, then I wonder if we're really praying” as I reflect upon my own prayer life.