The Prayers/Book One Troubles - A Homeschool Review Crew Book Review

I am a book lover. My wife hates it. Not that she hates reading mind you, it's just that she hates that I love to collect books. You can thank my parents for that. My parents loved to read. They instilled that love of reading into my siblings and me. It was passed down from my grandfather who had a massive library. So, I have genes in me for reading and book collecting.

Because of my love for reading I am always on the lookout for good books. These days I usually only read Christian fiction and non-fiction unless it's a good historical novel or biography of course. One of the main things that I look for is if it will help me in my Christian walk or in my ministry. When I the opportunity came up to possibly review The Pray-ers/Book One Troubles from CTM Publishing Atlanta, I researched the book a little and thought it would be an interesting read. I love spending time in prayer but often feel inadequate in my prayers. This book looked like it might help.

Little did I know that this book is just what I needed! I absolutely love the way the author, Mark S Mirza, blends Biblical Truths, history, and great story lines to teach about prayer and how satan and his demons are always trying to discourage God's followers and keep others from following God. And if there is anyone that knows about prayer it is Mark S Mirza.

Mark S Mirza used to lead Charles Stanley's Men's Prayer Ministry called "Sons of Thunder" before starting his own ministry - Common Thread Ministries to help churches and individuals with their prayer lives. Before that he was in the corporate world. I don't know what happened in his life before working in the ministry, but God always uses things for His glory and he has turned the author into a masterful storyteller and teacher.

There are quite a few things that I love about this book.

I love the way the way different folks throughout history are used to teach about prayer. (Yes, I even got the historical novel with this book!). From the Epaphras in the first century to Brother Alexander Rich in the 19th century to the present day world track coach from Georgia named Dale Riley. All of these men have fantastic prayer lives that God has developed in them throughout their years but all of them have troubles (hence the name of the book) of their own that they have to deal with. It's amazing how the author is able to mix troubles that are past and present and troubles that are created by the central figures and troubles that come from outside forces. Isn't that the way we are? We have troubles all around us. Troubles that we have created in the past that keep haunting us. Troubles that we are going through now that either happened because of our inadequacies or come from the outside. However, as I learned from reading this book, it doesn't matter how the troubles came, God is bigger than the troubles.

I love the way that everything is backed up by scripture. All the way through the book, the characters are praying scripture. That is something that I absolutely agree with but fail to do so often. I can see myself in so many of the situations that are happening in the novel and so many of the scriptures that they pray are perfect for things that I am going through. I am so glad that the author referenced the scriptures at the bottom of the pages where they occur.

Although I can't say that I love this, I appreciate that the author tries to give us a glimpse of what the demon world might be like. The author states in the introduction that this book is not about demons, but just to show us that demons are very real and are trying to influence us.

The Pray-ers/Book One Troubles is an awesome book that I would encourage anyone who is striving to improve his prayer life to read. I am definitely going to continue perusing this book and using the scriptures provided to pray over. It has and still is teaching me so much about prayer. I am looking forward to the second book in this series that is due out in December of this year.

To find out more The Pray-ers/Book One Troubles just click on any one of the highlighted links above. To find what other members of the Homeschool Review Crew thought of this book just click on the banner below. Happy reading and blessed praying!