Taught to Pray
Why Prayer Rests on God’s Promise, Not on the One Who Prays
You sit down to pray, say the words, and wait. No warmth comes. No voice answers. Before long, the silence begins to feel like a verdict on your faith.
Taught to Pray begins with that familiar burden and asks where confidence in prayer belongs. God commands His children to pray, promises to hear them for Christ’s sake, and gives them words to say. Prayer is faith answering what God has already spoken, and its certainty rests in His promise when the one praying feels nothing at all.
Across sixteen chapters, Larry Herzog Jr. examines the habits that turn prayer into a test of closeness, listening, or fervor; lays out its foundation in God’s command and promise; and walks through the Lord’s Prayer with Luther’s Small Catechism. The final part turns to lament, the answer that is no, and the comfort of praying in the company of the whole church. Two appendices offer Luther’s simple way to pray and Psalms for hours of fear, grief, guilt, illness, sleeplessness, and thanksgiving.
Who it’s for
Christians who find prayer empty, uncertain, or burdensome; readers worn out by demands for greater fervor or an inner voice; and anyone who wants to learn to pray the Lord’s Prayer with confidence in God’s promise.
What you’ll find inside
- Why prayer answers God’s Word, and why silence or a lack of feeling cannot measure whether He hears
- God’s command, God’s promise, and the words He gives as the foundation for prayer
- The Lord’s Prayer, petition by petition, with Luther’s Small Catechism as a guide
- Lament, unanswered prayer, and praying with the whole church in the dark
- Sixteen chapters and two appendices: Luther’s simple way to pray and Psalms for particular hours
Keep reading
- For the Struggling
THORN
A Lutheran Word for the Christian Who Struggles
For the Christian who still struggles — and wonders what that means.
- Job
For Nothing
A Study of the Book of Job
A free, ten-session study of Job — suffering without easy explanations, the failure of well-meant counsel, and the living Redeemer who meets Job in the ashes.
Reading paths: For the Struggling → · For Weary Evangelicals →