My Review of "Fervent"

Priscilla Shirer's Fervent: A Woman's Battle Plan for Serious, Specific, and Strategic Prayer is a book I've been waiting for for a long time. In it, Shirer highlights a simple truth: Prayer works.

From the very beginning of Fervent, readers are taught all of the ways in which the Enemy attacks.

There is a reason that in the New Testament military imagery for Christian life is even more popular than athletics. Even after the victory of the cross, Christian life is a battle. We don't walk it so much as run it and fight it.

Throughout the book, Shirer then offers reflections on the methods the Enemy will use in all those ways. She continually points to God's grace, all the while offering a guide to start writing our prayers to overcome all of the strategies with that grace.

What disturbed me about the book, though, is that Shirer seems to believe the Enemy is just "out there". More often the enemies are within: Sloth, boredom, apathy, frustration, incompetence, ignorance, insecurity, cynicism, pride, shame, envy, prejudice, distraction, heroism, cowardice, and impatience. I wish she had given more attention to those, too.

In the end, though, Fervent is a book that helps Christians develop habits of praying earnestly and always. This is not a book to be missed in 2016.

I received a free copy of this book from B&H Publishing in exchange for my honest review here.

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