Praying Like Jesus: The Lord's Prayer in a Culture of Prosperity

Rating:
Summary: Mulholland Has It Right
Review: An explosive and at times infuriorating look into the Lord's Prayer. It was a defining moment for me to step back from prayer as I know it and to make absolute sense as to what it meant to me, personally. The outcome was absolutely personal, and something that I needed. be GOD's!

Rating:
Summary: Mulholland Has It Right
Review: An explosive and at times infuriorating look into the Lord's Prayer. It was a defining moment for me to step back from prayer as I know it and to make absolute sense as to what it meant to me, personally. The outcome was absolutely personal, and something that I needed. be GOD's!

Rating:
Summary: A good premise, but needs some severe editing
Review: I empathize with an earlier reviewer who was (to paraphrase) "shocked, disgusted, inspired, and challenged" by this book. I found the underlying premise of Mulholland's book to be valid, and a timely challenge to those whose "prosperity theology" seems so popular today. I'm glad the author took up the challenge to rebut this fad, and I think, basically, he does a good job at this.

However, as is true so often, I think Mulholland swings too far the other way. Instead of simply sticking to his premise, he chooses to lay on guilt trip after guilt trip for those who are fortunate enough to have been born in the United States. What a shock it was to learn that our nation's collective work ethic and desire to avoid poverty are, in fact, the *reasons* other nations are themselves in poverty. Not because of where they live, or how they live, or what natural resources they do (or do not) have or use; it's because of *you and me*! How special!

The author is dead-on when he eggs us on for not helping the poor or less fortunate as we could if we so chose. He is dead wrong when he lays the responsibility for their poverty at our feet. If he can be so blind-wrong in this instance, it makes me wonder what else he's wrong about. In a way that's good, because it will motivate me to read other points of view. In a way that's bad, because others won't, and they will be spiritually damaged because they accept his made-up "liberal" theology.

The underlying principle is a good one, but beware the author's guilt-mongering.

Rating:
Summary: The Antidote for the Prayer of Jabez
Review: I read The Prayer of Jabez. Anything that is marketed that heavily just had to play to the Church of American Culture I thought. I was right.

Read Praying Like Jesus, preferably 3 seconds after you've finished The Prayer of Jabez.

What you encounter in Mulholland's book is the real thing folks and an effective antidote to the Christianity American Style embodied in The Prayer of Jabez.

Rating:
Summary: Word of God never returns void
Review: In the middle of this book, I was ready to throw it in the trash - BUT I am glad I didn't. You may well be frustrated by some of the liberal theology in this book. Hang in there, the book isn't about the author or theology, it is about Jesus and the Word of God. The author feels there is a resurge in health and wealth Gospel thinking due to the popular "Prayer of Jabez" book. The point of this book is to encourage the social Gospel aspect of Christianity. All in all, the book has a very Godly and timely point, and is presented in an inspiring way, through the Lords prayer. A chapter named "Deliver Us" uses the AA 12 step plan as a way to think about recovering from our "addiction" to prosperity / greed / money, and is a very powerful chapter indeed.

The book is flawed (all books but one are), but it is in the end a fresh and inspiring commentary on a familiar portion of the Word of God. God tells us that when His Word goes out "It shall not return to Me void" (Isaiah 55:11). True always and true again. In the time I spent with the book I was puzzled, irritated, disgusted, convicted, inspired, and challenged (roughly in that order).

Rating:
Summary: Prayer in perfect form
Review: Recently I wrote a review on the book 'The Prayer of Jabez.' I outlined in that review some of the things I appreciated about that book, but also recounted the many things that made me uneasy with both the development and the intention most seem to pick up from the practice of the prayer.

There are few things in our lives that are as personal and touch us as deeply as prayer, particularly our own prayer life. We each feel we are an expert at praying in our own ways, and to a large extent, each of us is. For this deep part of our lives to be co-opted by a feeling of selfish intention for personal gain is tragic. This is why I considered 'The Prayer of Jabez' problematic - the author's intent might not be selfishness, but the message being heard is precisely that.

In searching for an alternative to hold up as a model more in keeping with my own prayer temperament, Charles Allen, a theology professor at my seminary, directed me to James Mulholland's 'Praying Like Jesus: The Lord's Prayer in a Culture of Prosperity.'

The book begins where the disciples of Jesus began -- Thomas asks Jesus to teach them how to pray. In an interesting, fictional conversation, the disciples recount their experience of praying another prayer that seems to work better for them (of course, this is the prayer of Jabez). Many followers of Jesus seem to slink away after hearing Jesus tell people that they should stop asking for an increase in territory, but rather ask God to provide for their needs; that they should stop asking for a blessing in earthly terms, but rather be willing to follow the will of God even to death, to 'take up their crosses and follow'. This teaching is too hard to follow!

'This is not what happened two thousand years ago. Unfortunately, it is happening today in thousands of churches and with millions of Christians. ... Thousands of Christians are repeating an obscure prayer first uttered by a man named Jabez over three thousand years ago. Many have become convinced his words are the formula for prosperity.'

As Mulholland points out correctly, Wilkinson did not intend his prayer to become a manifesto for righteous greed. He also points out that neither Jabez nor the Bible hold up the prayer of Jabez as a model for anyone but Jabez to follow.

'This honour is reserved for another short prayer located in the gospels of Matthew and Luke. It is the prayer Jesus taught his disciples to pray. We call this prayer The Lord's Prayer, though I prefer to call it the Prayer of Jesus.'

Mulholland does not promise riches or special healing or power; he does not give the magic formula for getting what you want. What he does is reiterate the intentions of Jesus with the Prayer of Jesus -- an opportunity to reconnect with God and with each other through the words that, as the disciple Peter said, 'contain eternal life'.

The first chapter is entitled When You Pray. This, of course, assumes that you pray. Not if, but when. Mulholland talks about the prayer of self-righteousness and the prayer of self-interest. These prayers are one-communication, but even worse than that, they are directive or instructive, as if God needs to be told what to do or informed of something God did not yet know (such as, how good we've been lately). God is put in the mode of Santa Claus. Jesus gives a corrective to this.

'Praying like Jesus offers far more than prosperity. When prayed with sincerity, it cleanses our hearts of self-righteousness and strips our motives of self-interest. It challenges the false and inappropriate ways we approach God and each other. It reminds us of what we so easily forget -- our proper relationship to God and the world.'

Praying like Jesus reminds us of God more than it invokes ourselves. Praying like Jesus also reminds us of our needs as a community. This prayer is a prayer for the world, a world in which the will of God is primary.

The other chapters give insights into the particular parts of the Lord's Prayer: chapter titles include Our Father, Thy Kingdom Come, Give Us, Forgive Us, and Deliver Us. Each of these chapters stress the love of God for us, the importance of community, the importance of relationship, and the need to see who and where we are in right respect of God. This is not a prayer for become rich and famous, which is the trap of much of current culture, including the prayer of Jabez and many other 'Christian' things.

'This obsession with material blessing, at the expense of the spiritual, is a congenital disease. Being born an American is to be so afflicted. Jim Bakker was merely the most blatant prophet of a philosophy to which most of us pledge allegiance. His lifestyle was an exaggeration of a nearly universal merger of religious life and the predominant values of our culture. He sprinkled holy water on the American way.'

Of course, one of the problems with the Lord's Prayer is that it has become, for most Christians, an almost genetically-encoded prayer routine that it is done without thinking. Unfortunately, this means it is almost always done with comprehension on any level; it is just one more part of the liturgy that we say in our drive to get on and get through on our way to the next thing. Praying like Jesus requires us to pay attention, and pay attention deeply. Mulholland's final word in the conclusion is a charge for us to regain this attention and incorporate the prayer anew into our lives deeply and with meaning that it has in abundance, but which we've missed for so long.

Rating:
Summary: Prayer in perfect form
Review: Recently I wrote a review on the book `The Prayer of Jabez.' I outlined in that review some of the things I appreciated about that book, but also recounted the many things that made me uneasy with both the development and the intention most seem to pick up from the practice of the prayer.

There are few things in our lives that are as personal and touch us as deeply as prayer, particularly our own prayer life. We each feel we are an expert at praying in our own ways, and to a large extent, each of us is. For this deep part of our lives to be co-opted by a feeling of selfish intention for personal gain is tragic. This is why I considered `The Prayer of Jabez' problematic - the author's intent might not be selfishness, but the message being heard is precisely that.

In searching for an alternative to hold up as a model more in keeping with my own prayer temperament, Charles Allen, a theology professor at my seminary, directed me to James Mulholland's `Praying Like Jesus: The Lord's Prayer in a Culture of Prosperity.'

The book begins where the disciples of Jesus began -- Thomas asks Jesus to teach them how to pray. In an interesting, fictional conversation, the disciples recount their experience of praying another prayer that seems to work better for them (of course, this is the prayer of Jabez). Many followers of Jesus seem to slink away after hearing Jesus tell people that they should stop asking for an increase in territory, but rather ask God to provide for their needs; that they should stop asking for a blessing in earthly terms, but rather be willing to follow the will of God even to death, to 'take up their crosses and follow'. This teaching is too hard to follow!

`This is not what happened two thousand years ago. Unfortunately, it is happening today in thousands of churches and with millions of Christians. ... Thousands of Christians are repeating an obscure prayer first uttered by a man named Jabez over three thousand years ago. Many have become convinced his words are the formula for prosperity.'

As Mulholland points out correctly, Wilkinson did not intend his prayer to become a manifesto for righteous greed. He also points out that neither Jabez nor the Bible hold up the prayer of Jabez as a model for anyone but Jabez to follow.

`This honour is reserved for another short prayer located in the gospels of Matthew and Luke. It is the prayer Jesus taught his disciples to pray. We call this prayer The Lord's Prayer, though I prefer to call it the Prayer of Jesus.'

Mulholland does not promise riches or special healing or power; he does not give the magic formula for getting what you want. What he does is reiterate the intentions of Jesus with the Prayer of Jesus -- an opportunity to reconnect with God and with each other through the words that, as the disciple Peter said, 'contain eternal life'.

The first chapter is entitled When You Pray. This, of course, assumes that you pray. Not if, but when. Mulholland talks about the prayer of self-righteousness and the prayer of self-interest. These prayers are one-communication, but even worse than that, they are directive or instructive, as if God needs to be told what to do or informed of something God did not yet know (such as, how good we've been lately). God is put in the mode of Santa Claus. Jesus gives a corrective to this.

`Praying like Jesus offers far more than prosperity. When prayed with sincerity, it cleanses our hearts of self-righteousness and strips our motives of self-interest. It challenges the false and inappropriate ways we approach God and each other. It reminds us of what we so easily forget -- our proper relationship to God and the world.'

Praying like Jesus reminds us of God more than it invokes ourselves. Praying like Jesus also reminds us of our needs as a community. This prayer is a prayer for the world, a world in which the will of God is primary.

The other chapters give insights into the particular parts of the Lord's Prayer: chapter titles include Our Father, Thy Kingdom Come, Give Us, Forgive Us, and Deliver Us. Each of these chapters stress the love of God for us, the importance of community, the importance of relationship, and the need to see who and where we are in right respect of God. This is not a prayer for become rich and famous, which is the trap of much of current culture, including the prayer of Jabez and many other 'Christian' things.

`This obsession with material blessing, at the expense of the spiritual, is a congenital disease. Being born an American is to be so afflicted. Jim Bakker was merely the most blatant prophet of a philosophy to which most of us pledge allegiance. His lifestyle was an exaggeration of a nearly universal merger of religious life and the predominant values of our culture. He sprinkled holy water on the American way.'

Of course, one of the problems with the Lord's Prayer is that it has become, for most Christians, an almost genetically-encoded prayer routine that it is done without thinking. Unfortunately, this means it is almost always done with comprehension on any level; it is just one more part of the liturgy that we say in our drive to get on and get through on our way to the next thing. Praying like Jesus requires us to pay attention, and pay attention deeply. Mulholland's final word in the conclusion is a charge for us to regain this attention and incorporate the prayer anew into our lives deeply and with meaning that it has in abundance, but which we've missed for so long.

Rating:
Summary: A must read
Review: This book is a call back to the true Jesus of the Scriptures and away from the false "bless me" Jesus who is primarily being preached today. The writer is not harsh towards today's Christians but, rather, he writes with compassion.

He speaks of us turning to Jabez's prayer as a model when Jesus gave us the model prayer. That part really touched me. The popular prayer today is not "give us this day our daily bread" - - today's ideals say that daily bread is not enough! Some of our leaders even teach us that "faith" will cause us to ask for more than just daily bread. Why do a lot of us Christians not get as excited about forgiving those who trespass against us as we do getting blessed and having our territory enlarged?

A couple of other things the author says in the book:
"The prayer of self-interest is more interested in getting God's blessings than in discerning God's will." And "What is the will of God? We often make this a selfish search. What does God want for me? What is the best path for me? However, in the context of kingdom of God, seeking God's will is always discerning our role in making earth as it is in heaven."

There are many other things the Mr. Mulholland writes that will cause us to think and repent.

If you've felt that something is lacking in some of the more popular teachings on prayer, this book will bless you.

Rating:
Summary: Informative, Sane, Thought-Provoking, Inspiring, Challenging
Review: This book is a sane reproach to the millions of Jabez-type books that scatter the landscape. The author spurs the reader to be more than a narcissistic, self-serving prayer warrior. He challenges the reader to act out his or her faith. He deals with the text at hand by providing an exegesis that emphasizes the social aspects of the Christian Gospel. The only reason I didn't give it five stars is because he tends to interject some very liberal (some would say non-Evangelical) opinions that a reader will need to be aware of. If you are aware of the liberal slant in the author's theology, this book will provide you with many ideas on how to put feet to your faith. "The Prayer Of Jesus" by Hank Hanegraaff is a good read from an evangelical view that will give you a well-rounded perspective of this prayer. Books on Matthew 5-7 that are also helpful include John R.W. Stott's "The Message of the Sermon on the Mount, The Bible Speaks Today" and D.A.Carson's "Jesus' Sermon on the Mount: And His Confrontation with the World".

Rating:
Summary: A book more people need to read and take to heart
Review: This book sets on its ear the common misinterpretation of "The Prayer of Jabez" and other parts of the Bible as commanding personal materialism and selfishness. It examines the Lord's Prayer line by line, showing how Christians can live more as Jesus would live.

It's a timely antidote to the church-sanctioned culture of greed followed by so many American Christians. Parts of it literally made my jaw drop. Thank you, Rev. Mulholland, for a thought-provoking and inspiring book. I'll be buying and distributing several copies.