"...to many of us prayer is more like talking to a chocolate pudding than participating in an amazing relationship with a living being." In my experience, when I get discouraged about prayer I stop praying. I think this is common to many Christians, yet this is the opposite of what the Bible says we should do. Instead, it tells us to keep on praying and to pray more and more the worse things get. In fact, it tells us that the less our prayers are answered the more we should pray. The Bible's answer to discouragement about anything is to pray. For that matter, the Bible's answer to anything at all is to pray. On every occasion when we would normally not pray, it tells us instead to pray. Prayer in the Bible is the be-all and end-all to every situation and circumstance, whether it is immediately effective or not. To me this is unnatural. The be-all and end-all to me is to give up praying and instead to whine about God not listening. To me praying seems counter-intuitive. I would rather find an excuse for God not answering my prayer than persist and actually hear his answer. I would rather believe that God is sitting afar off and distant, uncaring and unmoved, than believe what the Bible says: that he really loves me personally, that he lives within me, that he hears my every word, that he answers my prayers and that he will never leave me nor forsake me. My internal, unspoken attitude toward prayer is that prayer does not always work and that it is boring, unrewarding and unimportant. All of these attitudes I have learned, either from others, or from myself. I need to unlearn all of these things and find out what prayer really is and how I should really pray. I need to learn what God says about prayer rather than what I think about prayer. I need to learn what the Bible teaches about prayer rather than what other people tell me about prayer. In Pursuit of the Living God tries to persuade the reader that an eternal relationship with God is at the heart of all prayer. It explores, in simple terms, the what, why, when, where and how of prayer as revealed in the pages of the Christian Bible. If you've ever wondered why, when we need to pray the most, we often pray the least, maybe this book can lead you to some answers.
About the Author: Peter Enseleit holds a Degree in Theology from the Sydney College of Divinity. Since becoming a Christian at the age of fifteen, his journey of faith has included many joys and struggles, through which God has increasingly made his presence known. Peter is actively involved in his local church community and has many years of experience in Christian small group leadership. He and his wife Cheryl live in rural Australia with their three children.