Video Guide to Where Prayer Becomes Real

As the new year approached, I wanted to encourage folks not to create a New Years resolution, but instead, to purposefully commit themselves to prayer. That is a nice idea, but it might be hard to know how to do. Prayer can be, it turns out, a confusing and disorienting place.

In light of that, I want to invite you to spend some time in prayer, either alone or with others, through my book Where Prayer Becomes Real: How Honesty with God Transforms Your Soul (co-written with John Coe). In light of my desire to do mini-courses for folks through my Substack, I decided to record a series of videos for folks wanting to commit themselves to a deeper life of prayer.

If you find prayer to be difficult, frustrating, and humbling, then this is for you.

If you find that prayer is the first thing that drops off of your spiritual practices, then this invitation will meet you right where you are.

There are a lot of different approaches you can take to commit yourself to prayer, but let me suggest that bringing together a group of friends and devoting yourself to spend time each week (or each month) practicing the prayer practices in the book.

If you do choose to do this in a group, we include a group guide in the back of the book, so that would be a good place to start (along with these videos).

For some, I imagine that reading a chapter, and then spending the next week doing the prayer project at the end of the chapter, will be a fruitful exercise. In this case, folks might meet every-other week to do so. But I’ve even heard of some groups meeting once a month, and focusing a month on each prayer project (this works perfectly actually if you take into account intro, interlude, and conclusion).

I don’t think the time is the issue, as much as making sure there is enough time to actually read slowly and carefully, and cultivating the space to actually do the prayer project. The goal of the book is not simply to read it, but to use it to enter into prayer.

Regardless of whether you read this alone or in a group, I hope that these videos can help frame each chapter for you and invite you into a deeper life of prayer with your Lord.

The best use of this guide, either individually or with a group, is to read the chapter, watch the video, and then spend an allotted amount of time to practice the prayer at the end of the chapter (I think a week would be good, but a month would give more space to really enter into the practice). If you are doing this in a group, you should read the group guide at the back of the book as a way to frame the time spent together.

I hope that this can helpfully guide you into a more meaningful time with the Lord.

Introduction: An Invitation to Love

1.    What if a Wandering Mind Is a Gift?

2.    What if Prayer Can Be a Place to Avoid God?

3.  What if Prayer Doesn’t Meet My Expectations?

4.    What if God Wants My Pain?

Interlude: An Invitation to Relearn Prayer

5.    The Prayer-book of the Soul

6.    Intending to Be with God

7.    Collecting Our Hearts to Him

8.    Being Known

9.    Intercession: The Art of Being for Another

Conclusion: The Struggle of Prayer

I hope that this mini-guide has been helpful. I am continually developing more material of this kind for my Substack, and John and I have completed the follow-up book to Where Prayer Becomes Real, so please keep an eye out for that from us and Baker Books. May the Lord lead you to himself.

Grace to you and peace, kyle