AUTHORS TALK BOOKS: Cathy Messecar’s Top 3 books on prayer

This is the first in a series of occasional posts by authors who are members of Churches of Christ. These authors will discuss their favorite books in a genre or a topic of their choosing.

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By Cathy Messecar
Three books helped my early prayer life:
Chipped Dishes Zippers and Prayers: Meditations for Women , by Ruth Gibson — As I read this book, I made a turn from light prayers to truer prayers as Gibson shared how to pray in the name of Jesus. Instead of tacking “in Jesus’ name” in a rote way as prayer endings, she concluded most of her devotional thoughts with “In memory of Jesus, who …” and then she named some way Jesus personally helped her. Outstanding in the book is her quandary about staying in graduate school or quitting. She eventually decided her family needed her at home and closed her prayer, “In memory of Jesus, whose mother never went to college.”
 
 
Don’t Just Stand There, Pray Something: The Incredible Power of Intercessory Prayer,  by Ronald Dunn — My take away from this pastoral book was ask, seek and knock on heaven’s door with fellow believers before turning doorknobs here on earth. Dunn told how a pancake fundraiser pointed him to rely upon God. I still remember the accompanying anecdote about Whataburger, Whatachurch, Whatapancake.
 
 
 
Prayer: Finding the Heart’s True Home, by Richard J. Foster — Measurable growth happened in my relationship with God because of reading Foster’s writings about prayer. First, I embarked on a year of praying in a kneeling position each day. After weeks of tearful confessions and not wanting to be there, I came to know God as Father, and kneeling in his presence became a beloved time of intimacy. Foster also helped me recognize on-the-go prayers as legitimate. Even though they occurred in busy, loud or chaotic moments, I knew God listened and understood.
 
 

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Cathy Messecar authored “A Still and Quiet Soul: Embracing Contentment” for Leafwood Publishers in 2011 (paperback and Kindle). A member of the Conroe Church of Christ in Texas, she speaks at civic and women’s events and has written more than 600 weekly inspirational columns for Houston Community Newspapers. She lives in Montgomery, Texas with her husband, Dave, and blogs at stainedglasspickup.blogspot.com. Find other books she wrote by searching Amazon for her name or visit www.cathymessecar.com.

• Feedback
  Often we are asked to provide small group Bible studies that are written by women in the church of Christ. Some are out there, but not nearly as many as we’d like. Or maybe we are just not aware of them. As you start this series, in addition to books by these authors, I’d love to hear about good quality Bible studies written by them as well.

  Lori Walle

  October, 31 2012

  Cathy, I do miss the conversations on “Christian Mirror” … haven’t found anything that is quite the same! Blessings from our Heavenly Father!

  Kathy

  October, 31 2012