What If Jesus Was Serious About Prayer?: A Visual Guide to the Spiritual Practice Most of Us Get Wrong

By Skye Jethani

Good things come to those who believe . . . right?

People like to say, “Prayer works.” But what does that mean? Prayer works for what? Getting the answers from God that we want so much?

While God certainly cares for your deepest needs, Skye Jethani wants you to know that prayer is so much more than a two-way transaction with a heavenly vending machine. Jesus didn’t pray like that. And with a pastor’s heart, Skye wants to take you deeper into what Jesus, the lover of your soul, had to say about talking with God.

In What If Jesus Was Serious About Prayer?, you’ll benefit not only from Skye’s words of wisdom but his doodles that help the visual learner connect with spiritual truth. Prayer isn’t about getting answers, but getting God. We need more prayer in our lives—not because God can give us what we crave, but because He offers himself to us in love.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Moody Publishers
• Release date: Jun 1, 2021
• ISBN: 9780802499837

Skye Jethani

Skye Jethani (www.skyejethani.com) is the managing editor of Leadership journal, a magazine and online resource published by Christianity Today International. He also serves as a teaching pastor at Blanchard Alliance Church in Wheaton, Illinois.

Book preview

First, Skye Jethani has an epic name. Second, he is brilliant, witty, and deeply biblical. Third, get this book. It will transform your prayer life.

DERWIN L. GRAY Lead Pastor, Transformation Church; author of God, Do You Hear Me: Discovering the Prayer God Always Answers

What If Jesus Was Serious … about Prayer is creative and convicting, with memorable images rather than formulas or rules. This is a valuable resource that will influence your theology of prayer as well as your practice of it.

KAITLYN SCHIESS author of The Liturgy of Politics: Spiritual Formation for the Sake of Our Neighbor

Skye Jethani provides a life-giving reminder that prayer is not reserved for the polished, tidy, and presentable moments of life, but rather, God yearns to be in constant communion with us in our messy, ordinary, everyday lives.

GARY HAUGEN founder and CEO of International Justice Mission

I’ve read dozens of books on prayer, but Skye Jethani’s is now one of my favorites. This practical book left me motivated to pray more and equipped to develop a praying life that can change me, the people closest to me, and even our world.

KARA POWELL Chief of Leadership Formation at Fuller Seminary, Executive Director of the Fuller Youth Institute, and coauthor of 3 Big Questions That Change Every Teenager

The great gift of Skye is to cut through the muddle of confused thinking around the subject of prayer and focus on the profoundly simple instruction Jesus offers. He combines deep theology with practical and accessible illustrations that are incredibly helpful in getting to the heart of what Jesus taught and modeled. Skye’s book will be of great help to those who’ve always found prayer confusing or boring.

MIKE ERRE pastor, author, and host of the VOX Podcast

Popular forms of Christianity are obsessed with teaching us how to live for God, but they rarely equip us to live with Him. And the key to a radically transformed life with God? Prayer. Skye Jethani is back with an eminently accessible, highly useful guide to the kind of Christ-centered life so many young Christians are thirsty for. Highly recommended!

PHIL VISCHER creator of VeggieTales and cohost of The Holy Post podcast

Skye has done it again. In his winsome blend of engaging stories, perceptive insights, creative sketches, and much-needed challenges, he offers new ways to engage with an ancient—and still incredibly significant—practice and posture of prayer. Jesus certainly was serious about prayer—and Skye communicates that truth in a seriously engaging way.

J.R. BRIGGS author, The Sacred Overlap: Learning to Live Faithfully in the Space Between; founder, Kairos Partnerships

Could there be a more important question than, How do we pray? Of course not. Sadly, when most people hear the word prayer, they only think of asking God for things (one type of prayer). Skye Jethani, in his characteristic flare many of us have come to love, opens up a wider, deeper, more ancient vision of prayer—as the pathway to union with God. I can think of no better book to get you started on your journey.

JOHN MARK COMER pastor of Bridgetown Church and author of The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry

Skye Jethani has a refreshingly distinct angle of vision about Jesus and the world. Like the first book in the What If Jesus Was Serious? series, this second one reflects Jethani’s careful reading of Scripture, and his commitment to help the reader hear and respond. This is just the kind of provocation and encouragement that should come from taking Jesus—and what He taught and embodied—seriously. Watch out or this will change your life!

MARK LABBERTON president, Fuller Theological Seminary

© 2021 by

SKYE JETHANI

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form without permission in writing from the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews.

Some content in this book was previously published on the author’s blog or email devotionals.

Scripture quotations are from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Edited by Kevin Mungons

Interior and cover design: Erik M. Peterson

Interior and cover illustrations: Skye Jethani

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Jethani, Skye, 1976- author.

Title: What if Jesus was serious about prayer? : a visual guide to the spiritual practice most of us get wrong / Skye Jethani.

Description: Chicago, IL : Moody Publishers, [2021] | Includes bibliographical references. | Summary: Skye Jethani wants you to know that prayer is so much more than a two-way transaction with a heavenly vending machine. Jesus didn’t pray like that. And with a pastor’s heart, Skye wants to take you deeper into what Jesus had to say about talking with God-- Provided by publisher.

Identifiers: LCCN 2020057846 (print) | LCCN 2020057847 (ebook) | ISBN 9780802424167 (paperback) | ISBN 9780802499837 (ebook)

Subjects: LCSH: Jesus Christ--Prayers. | Jesus Christ--Example--Biblical teaching. | Prayer--Christianity. | Prayer--Biblical teaching.

Classification: LCC BV229 .J48 2021 (print) | LCC BV229 (ebook) | DDC 248.3/2--dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020057846

LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020057847

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The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working.

Friend,

Thank you for choosing to read this Moody Publishers title. It is our hope and prayer that this book will help you to know Jesus Christ more personally and love Him more deeply.

The proceeds from your purchase help pay the tuition of students attending Moody Bible Institute. These students come from around the globe and graduate better equipped to impact our world for Christ.

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The Moody Publishers Team

CONTENTS

Introduction: Prayer (in Parentheses)

Part 1: What Prayer Is (and Isn’t)

Part 2: Keep It Simple (and Unceasing)

Part 3: It’s Off to Work (with God) We Go

Part 4: Learning to Pray (Like Jesus)

Part 5: The Truth (& Nothing But the Truth) So Help Me God

Part 6: Prayer Changes (How You See) the World

Notes

Introduction

PRAYER (IN PARENTHESES)

"I WANT TO LIVE A RADICAL life for God." That’s how one college student responded when I asked why he was no longer planning to attend medical school. He was convinced that saving lives as a cardiologist was too mundane a calling for a Christian. Instead, like so many other young adults, he believed social activism was a higher calling.

I want to go overseas and impact lives, he said.

How will you do that? I asked.

I don’t know yet, he confessed. Maybe I’ll start a nonprofit, or a church, or something to transform a city. His combination of enthusiasm and naïveté is why I enjoy students so much. But whatever I do, it has to be something radical!

It became evident through our conversation that the young man wasn’t just ambitious to improve the world, but to prove

Reviews for What If Jesus Was Serious About Prayer?

[Mike Brooks · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

It was easy to understand but topics at times were complex yet, the author presented in a manner which made the material understandable.

[Maggie · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Thought-provoking. My take away, to pursue a praying life, not a prayer life. Skye is always refreshing to read.