Becoming the Answer to Our Prayers Quotes from Book

[William Richard Ezell]

Becoming the Answer to Our Prayers by Shane Claiborne and Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove InterVarsity Press, 2008 Reviewed by Rick Ezell Prayer is not so much about convincing God to do what we want God to do as it is about convincing ourselves to do what God wants us to do (p. 11). Prayer is less about what we say and more about being with the one we love (p. 11). Prayer and action can go together; in fact they must. Otherwise we have little more than a bunch of inactive believers or worn-out activists, and neither do much good for the world (p. 12). Temptation is a sign that we are still on our way to the Promised Land. It reminds us that we have left something good for something better (p. 45). Christians are not people who are no longer tempted but people who have seen enough of God to be able to resist the kingdom of this world (p. 45-46). The most attractive temptations are not just the bad things but the subtle distortions of good things (p. 46). Dietrich Bonheoffer observes that the person who loves their dream of community will destroy community, but the person who loves those around them will create community (p. 51). We are not taught to pray that we be kept from pain (p. 52). I have come to see that we Christians are not called to safety, but we are promised that God will be with us when we are in danger. And there is no better place to be than in the hand of God. Perhaps the most dangerous place for a Christian to be is in safety and comfort (p. 53). One of the most important questions for the church today is not whether Christianity is political but how Christianity is political (p. 60). It takes a community to reach a community (p. 86). One of the greatest hindrances to the spreading of the gospel is that Christians talk about reconciliation and unity, but the church is very fractured and has little integrity (p. 88). One of the greatest witnesses of the church can be our ability to disagree well (p. 89). If the saints stop praying, the world would fall apart (p. 94). We are to remind the world of Jesus (p. 96). Gregory of Nyssa said, “The contemplation of God’s face is the unending journey accomplished by following directly behind the Word” (p. 98). We should pray that we would become the sort of people who are safe for God to trust with miracles (p. 113). We are not called to be candles. . . . We are called to be fire (p. 116). We are the ones God is waiting on (p. 117). Radiating Christ (p. 59) Dear Jesus, help us to spread your fragrance everywhere we go. Flood our souls with your spirit and life. Penetrate and possess our whole being so utterly that our lives may only be a radiance of yours. Shine through us, and be so in us, that every soul we come in contact with may feel your presence in our soul. Let them look up and see no longer us but only Jesus! Stay with us, and then we shall begin to shine as you shine; so to shine as to be a light to others; the light O Jesus, will be all from you, none of it will be ours; it will be you, shining on others through us. Let us thus praise you in the way you love best by shining on those around us. Let us preach you without preaching, not be words but by our example, by the catching force, the sympathetic influence of what we do. The evident fullness of the love our hearts bear to you. Amen.

[Jean Jenkins]

I've read Shane Claiborne's book, Irresistible Revolution, so I was curious to read quotes from this book. As expected, they were thought provoking. I'm eager to read the book. FYI: the final prayer--Radiating Christ--is attributed to John Henry Cardinal Newman, not the authors.