The Papa Prayer

Huw Williams | February 2014 - Highfields Book of the Month

By Larry Crabb - (2006) Nashville: Thomas Nelson

I don't know if pastors are supposed to admit this, but I struggle with prayer. (I'm not sure if missionaries are supposed to admit this kind of thing either, but there we are, I've said it now.) I imagine I am not alone in these struggles; it's not so much the 'when?' of prayer ("I don't have time!"), or the 'how?' ("What do I say?") that I struggle with - although they would be probably be part of it too, it's the 'why?' of prayer that I have often found the most difficult aspect. We believe God is sovereign, powerful and good, and He knows us and cares for us deeply - why then do we need to ask him for things He already knows we need?

Crabb's response is both gentle and firm, not to mention deeply challenging. Our questions about the necessity of prayer often expose a huge foundational problem in our view of God Himself. Petitionary prayers (ie. asking God for stuff) are unquestionably biblical, but problems arise when we miss that the majority of prayers of the Bible are also centred around knowing God and getting to know Him better - in short, relating to God. 

That may or may not be an attractive proposition to us - if we want God to function simply as a "great vending machine in the sky", whereby we put enough prayers in the slot to get the right outcome out of the machine, then we are not likely to want to relate to Him so much, and prayer is likely to remain "dull, intense only in crisis, occasionally meaningful and passionate but mostly lifelessly routine." But if we want to actually know God, and to relate to Him in prayer, to grow in our knowledge and love of Him more than we want to get stuff out of Him, then it is high time for a revolution in our approach to prayer.

Crabb proposes an approach to prayer based on the acronym PAPA (Present - Attend - Purge - Approach), and if this sounds a little too prescriptive or systematic, don't be put off, there is enough explanation provided in the book of what he means by this - as well as his own aversion to systems - to reassure you. Crabb's prose is readable and attractive, and he is devastatingly honest at times in sharing his own struggles and failures, in a way which many of us will relate to and find ourselves thinking "And I thought I was the only person who struggled with that!"

At the heart of this book is a passion for people to relate to God honestly in prayer, and to allow the character of God to transform us, even in the act of prayer itself. Petitionary prayer is certainly encouraged, but when we have considered who we are, especially in relation to who God is, and repented of how we have tried to use God to our own ends, we will often find that those petitions begin to change in keeping with the gospel.

I have read a few excellent books on prayer in the last few years, all of which have been very commendable in their own ways, but The PAPA Prayer is going straight to the top of my list of recommendations. If you are tired of a dull, routine, lifeless prayer life, if you are stirred by the idea of actually relating to God and being changed by Him in prayer, rather than presenting a shopping list, read The PAPA Prayer. It is easily the best book I have read (on any subject) for months, and has certainly helped to transform my own prayer life.