A Diary of Private Prayer


Yesterday I talked to an old friend. We hadn't seen each other or talked in years, but he and his family are as dear to me as ever. He asked me to recommend a book for his men's group to read and discuss together, preferably one that would give them daily readings and enough content to fuel lively conversations.

A book came to mind immediately: John Baillie's A Diary of Private Prayer. It is a collection of morning and evening prayers for thirty-one days, concluding with a morning and evening prayer specifically for Sundays. They are personal, warm, honest, and deep. Prayers of adoration, confession, repentance, thanks, and petition.

I explained to my friend that this volume is not a book ABOUT prayer. It is a book OF prayer. Each prayer should be not only read, but prayed as well. My edition even provides a blank page facing each prayer for the reader's own reflection and notation.

It is a wonderful book. I couldn't more highly recommend it.

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