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The Place of Prayer will be released soon. Here is the introduction.

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Yes, another book about prayer, as if there weren’t enough already. Yes, this is a fictional novel, and we have plenty of those also. But the focus of this book is more about teaching than just telling a story. The idea is to mix the two together, which isn’t a new idea, but I think it is a good one. I hope that you do also.

The purpose behind this book is to help others discover what James Montgomery calls the “path of prayer.” Many people long to have a heartbeat in their prayers, as well as a heart that continually beats to pray—to commune and fellowship with the living God and Savior. They want to understand and know how to pray, as the apostle Paul prayed:

… always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, being watchful to this end with all perseverance and supplication for all the saints … [i]

For some, the desire is already present, which helps to get the engine started, but then what? How do you make the practice of prayer a part of your everyday life? How do you keep the spirit of prayer alive in your soul? It is as Charles Spurgeon wrote: “To commence prayer is easy, but to continue in it is another thing.”[ii]

So, what if you had a personal mentor to teach you, to walk with you, and to show you by example how prayer grasps eternity and holds on? What if you had a friend, a confidant, who met with you and helped you bring such a heavy-weighted subject down to your level and into your daily life? Well, here lies the unique journey that you can take within this book. You can share the struggles, the joys, the pursuits, along with the sacredness and beauty of prayer that are discovered as one man finds the place of prayer.

It should go without saying that it is impossible to cover with any thoroughness even one dimension of one aspect of this infinite subject, even in a thousand lifetimes. In fact, no one but the Perfect One—Jesus Christ, the God/man, has tapped fully into the eternal nature of prayer. Therefore, we will look to Him as the master teacher in this spiritual journey. He will teach us how to build a practical foundation one layer at a time, one step at a time that will last a lifetime. Along the way, common questions and obstacles will be tackled and important theological truths put into practice. But most importantly, I hope, by the work of the Spirit of God, the wonders of prayer will be unveiled in the shadow of the infinite and sovereign God. And by the time you turn the last page, your heart will long to seek the face of God through prayer and the Holy Scriptures with more fervency and joy. May the end result of such a pilgrimage, as with and in all things, result in glory and praise to His Name, and to His Name alone–Sola Gloria Deo.

In Service to Christ and His Church,

Jeff Beard