Gospel-Centered Prayers: December 2006 Archives

I recently discovered a fairly new blog (launched this past August) that I really like. It's the blog of Justin Buzzard. Why do I like it? Just read his most recent post—a book recommendation—and you'll know why.

Wow. This book is good. Everything that Goldsworthy writes is worth reading, but this may turn out to be my favorite by G.G. So far, this is proving to be the best book I've ever read on prayer. It dovetails nicely with the sermon I preached on prayer several weeks back, though I still would've loved to have read this book before preaching that sermon. Here's a few quotes I'm appreciating:

"A wrong perspective on prayer may well come from thinking of it as playing a part in establishing our acceptance with God. Prayer that is not the grateful response of the justified sinner is likely to degenerate into an attempt to gain acceptance

....if the sole motive to pray is, as I have heard it put in sermons, 'Jesus got up early to pray, so how much more do we need to get up early to pray', it is missing the grace of God in the gospel. 'He did it, therefore we ought to' is not the perspective of the gospel unless it's linked with, 'He did it for us because we are unable to do it as we ought.'"