Wrestling Prayer by Eric and Leslie Ludy

I honestly don't know what to write about this book. Not because I didn't like it, but because I am still trying to comprehend it's implications for my life. Overwhelming, challenging, mind-boggling, life-changing are all suitable but also insufficient attempts at description.

"We are to be the fearless ones, the courageous ones, the ones who stand when every other man sits, the ones who storm the gates when every other man turns and hightails, the ones who say, 'I will fight 'em!' when every other man sinks in despair." I am afraid that more often I am sinking in despair than prepared to storm the gates, but Eric and Leslie have an answer for that. "There is absolutely  no excuse to stay where you are at right now. If you are weak, He can make you strong. If you are timid, He can make you brave. If you are a pervert, He can make you pure. If you are selfish, He can make you selfless. If you are a shepherd, He can make you a king. If you are mediocre, He can make you a Mighty One of valor."

Growing up in church, prayer is often talked about, preached about, and tried about....but the prayer described in this book (as taken from examples from the Bible) is really not something I have ever seen in practice. "If you want to get serious about prayer, you have to make a conscious decision to ignore all of those brilliant-sounding excuses. You have to choose to make prayer the highest priority of your life - no matter how your flesh screams in protest."

Perhaps one of the passages that most pierced my heart was the one asking why more people aren't willing to devote their lives to this kind of prayer. "We hesitate because we instinctively know that life will forever change if we seize this opportunity. We know that we will never be able to go back to our days of selfish and fleshly ignorance. We are aware of the fact that we are not just gaining something great, but we are losing something in this transaction. ...We are losing the controls of our life. And, to be quite frank, we like being in control. ...We are giving up the confidence in our self, our abilities, our intellect, our wisdom, and our might. ...We are giving up all the excuses that we have concocted over the years for living a mediocre and marginal existence."