Book Review: Praying for My Life

One of my Facebook friends, whose name I drew early in my 2023 Prayer Project, is battling breast cancer. Following her mass removal and reconstruction surgery, she faced a further battle with depression. In seeking to encourage her, I headed downstairs to find a book I could send. I settled on an older devotional I had on hand: Rhythms of the Heart: Readings That Connect Your Mood to God's Word by Shelley Chapin with Joni Eareckson Tada. While scanning my shelves, I also happened upon this book (knowing my mother-in-law's great love of Guideposts, I think this was probably a book she passed along to me at some point).

Praying for My Life: Holding On to God's Promises, No Matter What was written by Marion Bond West (and published by Guideposts). Marion's husband, Jerry, died of cancer, leaving her to raise their four children. The book walks the reader through countless situations demanding relentless faith in God. Marion is an outstanding storyteller. Each chapter held my attention fast and made me reassess the trials I sometimes find overwhelming. The challenging stories of her twin sons left me exhausted. What whirling dervishes! Their antics made my sons look like angels (if you read my blog from the outset, when mine were small, you would know they tested me sorely).

While the twins were a handful in their early years, they were a hurricane of trouble as they hit their teens. Marion struggled to parent effectively. Her grief often stood in the way. Her desire to be used by God also led her to seek opportunities to speak into the lives of others before speaking into the lives of her own sons. By young adult age, they presented tremendous trials. One battled drug addiction and the other manic depression. Yet Marion continued to cling to God's promise of restoration. I appreciated her honesty and vulnerability. She doesn't gloss over her weaknesses or inadequate responses.  

This book aided my current prayer ministry. It reminded me we must pour out our intercession for others because God holds those prayers in golden bowls in heaven (Revelation 5:8 and 8:3-5). But, even more, it spurred on my prayer for my prodigal son. If I read this book for no other reason, the impact of a question on page 74 was worth every page turned. Marion's daughter posed a question that stopped me in my tracks. She asked, "Mother, how do we know that our continual fear and worry isn't a worse sin than being addicted to drugs or whatever?" Ouch!

Are you facing overwhelming odds in some situation of life? Praying for My Life will lift your eyes to One who holds every circumstance in His hands. It will remind you to intercede with urgency. To believe He will repay the years the locusts eat. It will encourage you to pray as if your life depended on it. You will claim these verses in Habakkuk:

"Though the fig tree should not blossom, nor fruit be on the vines, the produce of the olive fail and the fields yield no food, the flock be cut off from the fold and there be no herd in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the LORD; I will take joy in the God of my salvation. GOD, the Lord, is my strength; he makes my feet like the deer's; he makes me tread on my high places." - Habakkuk 3:17-19 (ESV)