‘Pray Big: The Power of Pinpoint Prayer’ by Will Davis Jr. – Book Review

One of the most important – and most neglected – actions in the life of a Christian is prayer. In his book ‘Pray Big: The Power of Pinpoint Prayer,’ Will Davis Jr. provides terrific pointers on what he has learned in his many years of ministry and study on this world- and life-changing activity.  

Here is the synopsis of this practical book:

Why do we settle for weak, vague prayers, couching our requests in words like “just be with Bob” or “bless Janet in her time of need”? God wants us to be bold and direct in our prayers. It’s time to pray big to unleash the power of God in the big and small things.

Will Davis Jr. calls this kind of specific and biblical prayer “pinpoint prayer.” He offers straightforward guidance on how you can call on God with focus and confidence when praying for big miracles, small details, other people, and, yes, even ourselves. He teaches you how to pray the Bible back to God and includes one hundred pinpoint prayers based directly on Scripture. Each chapter ends with questions to guide small group discussion and help you develop a more focused, passionate prayer life.

Here is the biography of the author:

Will Davis Jr. is the founding pastor of Austin Christian Fellowship, a nondenominational church in Austin, Texas. He is a Baylor University graduate who also holds a Master of Divinity and Doctor of Ministry degree from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth, Texas. In addition to being the author of six books (Wake-Up Calls, Pray Big, Pray Big for Your Marriage, Pray Big for Your Child, Why Faith Makes Sense, and Faith Set Free), Davis frequently travels and speaks to audiences on the subject of prayer. He and his wife, Susie have been married since June 1985 and have three children. The family enjoys the outdoors and, in their free time, participates in horseback riding, hiking, snowshoeing, mountain climbing, waterskiing and bicycling.

I had the pleasure of reading and reviewing his wife Susie’s book, ‘Uncovered: Revealing the Secrets of a Sexy Marriage’; you can read my review here.

Here is Pastor Davis discussing his book:

Pastor Davis begins by showing us that, in the Lord’s Prayer, Jesus gave us a perfect prayer sample:

You know those words and have probably prayed them on countless occasions. But have you ever noticed the pure simplicity of this prayer? Have you noted its brevity and clarity? Jesus obviously was giving us a model outline for how our prayers might flow. But as a simple prayer, the Lord’s Prayer is the perfect example of what I call pinpoint praying. There’s no fluff, no fat, no extra words or theologically heavy terms. There’s just simple, spot-on, pinpoint accuracy from Jesus. Jesus acknowledge the character and sovereignty of God, surrendered to the Father’s will, and sought provision, protection, and guidance from God. That’s pinpoint praying. (p. 12)

It’s important to keep pinpoint prayers simple:

The great news is that pinpoint praying doesn’t require a master’s degree in principles of advanced theological and spiritual dialogue. In fact, it’s just the opposite. If anything, pinpoint praying is what you’re most likely to do when left to yourself. It’s the childlike, straightforward kind of communication with God that Jesus applauded in the Gospels and modeled in his own ministry. At its core, pinpoint praying is simple. (p. 14)

We’ve made praying too difficult:

…Somehow we’ve gotten the impression that true prayer requires big words, lengthy phrases, and choice theological terms. But that’s not what Jesus modeled for us. He taught his prayer-hungry disciples to pray with focus, confidence, specificity, and brevity. What a concept! If you want to be razor-sharp in your praying, tell God what you’re thinking in the most direct, blunt and simple terms possible. Pray in a language that you understand, and then trust that God will get it. (p. 15)

Pastor Davis also suggests that we use the Bible in general to pray to God:

Praying the Bible takes the guesswork out of prayer. Right at your fingertips there is an arsenal of pinpoint prayers that you know God will answer. Why spend time trying to figure out how to word your requests and needs to God when the Bible has already done it for you? Instead of struggling with what to say, just pray God’s holy Word right back to him. (p. 17)

Pastor Davis suggests we should pray big, and we should call those prayers Big, Hairy, Audacious Prayers (BHAPs):

The Bible teaches that such praying is neither arrogant nor irresponsible. In fact, both Testaments of the Bible endorse the principle of praying big. It’s the kind of praying that the Old Testament leaders and heroes engaged in. It’s the kind of praying that Jesus both modeled and encouraged. And it’s the kind of praying that we need to practice.

Do you make big asks of God? Don’t be timid in your prayers. Prayers should be as big as God’s promises and as full as God’s resources. Your requests should require the full power and provision of God. (p. 25)   

God is waiting for us to ask:

….Are you praying BHAPs? Do you regularly go before God seeking kingdom-level answers? Do your prayers require the best of God? As a follower of Christ, you need to know that you’re on solid biblical ground when you’re seeking miraculous things from God. You also need to know that all the divine power of the Creator of the universe stands ready to move when you pray. (p. 31)

We are also expected to be relentless in our prayers:

[God] wants us to persistently seek him until he answers. Tell God that you are completely serious about securing his answer. Tell him that you will not be silent until he moves in the situation for which you’re praying. Show God that you’re willing to pray and wait until he comes through just like he promised. (p. 36)

God also cares about the small things:

Philippians 4:6 instructs us to pray about everything. If Paul had wanted us to limit our praying to everything big, he certainly would have told us. But he tells us to pray about everything. For those of us who are in the habit of losing our checkbooks and car keys, that’s great news.

God is as interested in your small, seemingly insignificant requests as he is your kingdom-level, life-changing needs. God’s interest in your prayers isn’t dependent upon their relative kingdom weightiness. It’s based on his love for and interest in you. (p. 43)

Praying for little things teaches us to be dependent on God:

When I’m praying, I’m acknowledging my dependence on God. I’m deliberately unplugging from my earthly and human sources of strength and choosing rather to plug in to God’s holy and infinite source. Prayer is an all-out declaration of dependence. When you choose to seek God’s leadership, direction, and provision for something as seemingly insignificant as a parking place, the right wording of a letter, or what clothes to wear to the office, you’re acknowledging that you want and need God’s direction in every aspect of your day. You’re inviting Jesus to rule and reign as Lord over every last detail of your life. That’s pinpoint praying that pleases God. That’s prayer that teaches you how to depend on him in everything. (p. 51)

It is also important that we pray for the lost:

Without Christ, we entomb ourselves spiritually. The things unbelievers choose over Jesus become the sites of their spiritual burials – their spiritual crypts. People invest themselves in all sorts of hobbies, activities, work, recreation, relationships, and even addictions in an effort to find life; in reality, they’re lying down in their spiritual graves.

Someone who is so determined to find his or her life’s meaning in things outside the church isn’t likely to spend much time there. So it is incumbent upon us, like Mary and Martha, to get Jesus to our lost loved ones. And the way we do that is through prayer. (p. 68)

I really liked this paragraph on how we should pray that Jesus should interrupt the lives of the lost people in our lives:

When you’re praying for unbelievers, there is nothing wrong with praying for them to go to church with you. That can be a great step in helping them find Christ. But why not start by asking Christ to find them? Picture your unbelieving friends in their study, in their bedroom, in their office, in the gym, or on the jogging trail. Think about them at school, at the computer, on a date, or giving a lecture. Ask Jesus to meet your friends there. Pray that he’ll interrupt their plans and disrupt their day. Ask Jesus to ambush them in their thoughts and ideas. Encourage him to invade their privacy when they think they’re alone. Pray that they’ll have an undeniable God encounter at a time and place they least expect. In short, ask Jesus to go to the place where they’re buried spiritually and to start speaking life to them. (p. 70)

We often need to be knocked over the head in order for us to see the Lord. This is an aggressive method which should work!

We need to be involved in Peacetime Praying – praying before a crisis, not just during or after one:

One of the most important factors in crisis pinpoint praying is to be a person of prayer before the crisis hits. A crisis is not the time to start praying; it’s the time to keep praying. That isn’t always easy. It’s typically a crisis that drives us to prayer. When things are just rocking along, we usually don’t feel the need to pray. But we need to pray “in season and out” (2 Tim. 4:2), in good times and bad. Be a praying person before the hurricane blows through your life, and then when it does, you won’t have to try to start praying. (p. 84)

It’s also important that we pray with other believers:

In Matthew 18:19, Jesus used a descriptive term to help the disciples understand why praying together is so powerful. Our English Bibles typically use the word agree, but that doesn’t do it justice. The word Jesus used is the Greek word symphoneo, and you can probably see its similarity to our word symphony.  At its most basic meaning, the word means “to sound the same.” This we get the meanings “to agree,” “to be in one accord,” or “to be harmonious.” When Jesus used this word, he obviously had in mind the appealing sound of his people praying for the same things. And while Jesus probably wasn’t thinking of a symphony, it’s still a great illustration of what he meant. (p. 103)

We need to remain pure in our words and needs; David provided a good example for us:

David believed that whatever went into his heart would flow back out of his mouth, so he fed himself a strict diet of God’s commands. He contemplated, reflected on, memorized, and internalized them. He bombarded his mind with God’s teachings in the hopes that no errant thought would be allowed in or out. David prayed that as he learned the truth of God’s commands, he would always be committed to speaking it. He wanted to be a truth teller, a truth promoter, a truth messenger. He asked God to help him always speak the truth. (p. 144)

Pastor Davis suggests these seven pinpoint promises you can pray for yourself (pp. 161-168:

                1. Lord, help me hate sin.

          2. Lord, help me love prayer.
          3. God, give me a platform.     

          4. Lord, please give me the gift of brokenness.

          5. Father, please give me your heart for lost people.

          6. God, please give me wisdom.

          7. God, please make me a “so be it” Christian.

I thought this book was very helpful. Each chapter ends with probing and insightful discussion questions; therefore, it is terrific for personal or group study. I appreciate Will sharing what’s he learned over the years with us!

You can order this book here.

This book was published by Revell Publishers and provided by B&B Media Group for review purposes.

‘Uncovered: Revealing the Secrets of a Sexy Marriage’ by Susie Davis – Book Review

No matter whether one has been married for a month or several decades, there is always room for improvement in the marriage relationship.  ‘Uncovered: Revealing the Secrets of a Sexy Marriage’ by Susie Davis is a book which, with practicality and humor, provides lots of helpful tips on how to grow closer.

This is the synopsis of this book:

          Having a happy and sexually satisfying marriage isn’t work – it’s fun!

Uncovered shares the secrets of understanding your husband and making your marriage your top priority using biblical wisdom, practical sense, and a bit of feminine charm.  With plenty of wit and realistic advice, Susie Davis shows you

·         how to get over your naked self and love your body

·         what “speed sex” is (hint: it doesn’t mean breaking records)

·         the important of letting your husband be a man

·         and much more

Each chapter also includes a top secret section called The Male Room where real married men reveal their true feelings about their wives and marriage.

If you’re ready to improve your relationship – and have fun – with the most important person in your life, this is the book for you.

Here is the biography of the author:

Susie Davis is the author of several books, including Parenting Your Teen and Loving It, and is a popular retreat and conference speaker.  She is founder and director of Susie Davis Ministries and has a passion for helping others develop God-centered relationships.  She is also a radio personality on the River in Austin.  With her husband, Will, she co-founded Austin Christian Fellowship in Austin, Texas, where he serves as senior pastor and she frequently teaches. They have three children.

I also discovered by reading this book that she is married to Will Davis Jr.; I will be reviewing his book, ‘Pray Big: The Power of Pinpoint Prayers’ soon.

In the Introduction, Susie asks her readers to pledge to take action:

So before you read even one more word, I ask you to pledge that you will do at least half of the suggestions in this book.  (Honestly, if you’ll just add a little speed sex to your marriage you could probably stop at that one.).  But even if you can’t promise now, please know that because you haven’t closed this book yet and you are reading this intro – you are already that much closer to actually doing something to improve your marriage. (p. 14)

In the chapter entitled ‘Superman,’ Susie makes the point that men have been emasculated over the years – and their wives are often the ones that cause that to happen:

…how many times have I unintentionally attempted to warp my husband’s masculinity by mandating safety, passivity, and rule keeping?  How many times have I squelched his dream?  Asked him to put down the metaphorical weapons of battle?  How many times have I asked him to be nice and not be dangerous?  How many times have I failed to let my man be one of the boys? (p. 48)

Susie goes on to explain that wives have a great deal of power over their husbands:

What you may not realize is that as a woman, you have a tremendous amount of power over the man you’re married to.  In many ways, you hold the key to avoiding what [C.S.] Lewis calls “the castration.”  In millions of little ways, you can either affirm your husband’s masculinity or you can crush it.  I truly believe if wives really understood the depth of power they possess purely by passion, proximity, and physicality, they would feel secure in understanding their worth and value as women.  If we could just grasp the fundamental issue of how relationship and marriage impact a man, we would stand tall and marvel in amazement, wielding our influence for positive change. (p. 49)

That statement alone is worth the price of this book!  Wives need to respect their husbands; it’s biblically based and so important to the psyche of their husband.

Susie shares the following statistic about how we talk to ourselves:

…the truth is, you send about 66,000 messages to yourself every day….  Psychologists tell us that on the average, you and I send 66,000 internal messages daily.  And the startling thing is that about 70 percent of those messages are negative.  That’s a heck of a lot of self smack-talk. (p. 57)

We need to love ourselves in order to extend love to our husband.  We need to accept ourselves, and adjust our attitudes toward the positive side:

Girlfriends, sexy started as a frame of mind.  It’s born from knowing you’re appealing.  And in this case, not to the masses, but to the one man who matter most: your husband.  And the fact of the matter is, once your man is touching you – should he be a good man who is full of the best kind of love – he ceases to focus on how you look and begins to think of the pleasure of making you feel good.  And when that is going on, it should make you feel immensely sexy in the one and only place sexy belongs: marriage. (p. 62)

When we love God, we should accept that He made us in His image:

When you love God, you don’t smack talk him, right?  And certainly, if you truly love your neighbor, you wouldn’t talk negatively about them.  Well, then, the same is true for you too.  If you love yourself, you should keep from letting all that negative self-talk roll around in your head.  It’s just not fitting to say hateful things about someone you love.  And while we all understand that and probably think it’s a smart idea, in practice it can get a little difficult. (p. 63)

In terms of the materialistic society in which we live, Susie suggests we raise our expectations about the life we want to live, and the ‘stuff’ we surround ourselves with:

…perhaps raising expectations might be smarter.  And I don’t mean that you want for more where stuff is concerned.  I am thinking that you want for more where your relationship is concerned – raise those expectations.  Because if it’s true that Americans are more prosperous – and more depressed – than ever, it just stands to reason that maybe we’re looking for happiness in all the wrong places. (p. 88)

Susie suggests that we develop a mission statement for our marriage.  There are great reasons for doing so:

The idea and implementation of a marriage mission will likely do a few interesting things.  First, it will kill the hording, stuff-whore mentality in marriage.  Second, it will inspire you to think big and to consider impact.  And third, it will also help you see a truth that smacks Will and me in the face daily: people are hurting more than we know. (p. 92)

Susie states that grace and mercy are important in marriage:

It’s the gift and beauty of unearthed love that sets apart a marriage that works from one that doesn’t.  Because in the end, there’s no perfect marriage…only perfected lovers.  Lovers who understand grace and mercy.  The kind who, in a transcendent way, “say grace” over their whole relationship, their whole life.

Many days – more than I care to confess or even imagine – grace is what keeps Will and me together.  And though that may sound startling or terribly unromantic, it’s the most freeing thing I’ve ever experienced.  To know that I’m loved unconditionally is an earthly taste of the Divine.  And for that, I’m implicitly and undeniably grateful. (p. 158)

This book is coming out at a perfect time; June weddings are very popular!  This book is perfect for both men and women, both newlyweds and those married for decades.  There are questions – ‘Uncovering the Truth’ – at the end of each chapter that can be answered by individuals or discussed with your spouse.

I really 'Uncovered.'  Susie has a fun, conversational style of writing; she seems like someone you’d like to spend time with at Starbuck’s!  She provides a lot of valuable information for married people that will help them grow closer if they implement some of her ideas.  I appreciate the pointers that she includes in this book, and her transparency in revealing the struggles – and the joys – in her own marriage.

You can order this book here.

Available May 2010 at your favorite bookseller from Revell, a division of Baker Publishing Group.  This book was provided by Revell Publishers for review purposes.