A Rhythm of Prayer: A Collection of Meditations for Renewal

This is a beautiful book that awakens the soul and encourages an honest crying out to the Divine through all expressions of the heart.For those who simply want to focus in on one "controversial" prayer in the book, I'd invite you to please consider looking more closely and honestly at the Bible, particularly in its Psalms and Laments. You'll find passages such as this one:"Reproach hath broken my heart; and I am full of heaviness: and I looked for some to take pity, but there was none; and for comforters, but I found none.They gave me also gall for my meat; and in my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink.Let their table become a snare before them: and that which should have been for their welfare, let it become a trap.Let their eyes be darkened, that they see not; and make their loins continually to shake.Pour out thine indignation upon them, and let thy wrathful anger take hold of them.Let their habitation be desolate; and let none dwell in their tents.For they persecute him whom thou hast smitten; and they talk to the grief of those whom thou hast wounded.Add iniquity unto their iniquity: and let them not come into thy righteousness.Let them be blotted out of the book of the living, and not be written with the righteous." (Psalm 69)Or thoughtfully examine Psalms 5, 6, 11, 12, 35, 37, 40, 52, 54, 56, 57, 58, 59, 79, 83, 94, 109, 137, 139 and 143.A simple Wikipedia search on "Imprecatory Psalms" is a starting place for further learning and understanding: "Biblical scholars agree that their intent is to purposefully alarm, and that invokers of imprecations in the Psalms did so for purposes of self catharsis, and to lead group catharsis during temple worship (see Solomon's Temple), noting that this probably helped provide ontological security to the Psalms' principal audience, the Israelites, who were a minority within their larger Mesopotamian world. Scholars also widely agree that imprecatory passages are never imprecatory in total, but are contextualized within messages of hope or promised mercy and blessing. More so than anything, particularly for passages from the Nevi'im, the intent is to provoke group or national repentance from evil acts and turn the hearers toward God."With this understanding, perhaps you might actually try coming to Dr. Walker-Barnes poem with an open mind to explore the "purposeful alarm," the "self catharsis," AND the "messages of hope, mercy, and blessing" so honestly professed by a lamenting and faithful woman, a "minority" who has experienced persecution. Maybe then you'll find greater understanding in these parts of Scripture while also a growing in compassion for a sister in spirit who has bravely shared her heart.My personal interpretation is that Dr. Walker-Barnes in fact shows tremendous mercy and love for her white neighbors in her lament. Her plea to "be able to hate" them reveals that she does NOT actually hate them, that she cannot -- she is unable to do so even in her extreme weariness after she and her immediate family and her ancestors and her people have been persecuted again and again for centuries (reminiscent of the Israelites and the Jewish people, those also evoking imprecatory psalms). This inability to actually hate her "enemy," "persecutor," "abuser" shows how powerfully she has submitted to God's call for forgiveness, mercy, and grace for all of his creation. What I'm thankful to have learned from Dr. Walker-Barnes's honest lamentation is how hate is such a deceptively easy path, while it is genuine forgiveness, mercy, grace, and love that require deep courage, fortitude, patience, endurance -- that require Divine power, something only God can bring. Dr. Walker-Barnes voice is one crying out in weariness, despair, anger, grief, pain asking for relief that would come (though temporarily) through quitting the great challenge of love and instead taking the easy way out, giving her heart up into the fires of anger and the comforting lie of power that hatred pretends. Not only have we all felt this, we all have even given into the seductive selfishness time and again. The hope and the mercy and the blessing that comes out of the cathartic release of these deep human emotions is found when we recognize -- just as Dr. Walker-Barnes does -- that the "benefits" of self-indulged hatred are false and temporary and that the inexplicably love of God within us is so unbelievably powerful and life-giving that we cannot turn from it. Dr. Walker-Barnes is an example for us of one expressing honestly and openly to our Creator despair, anguish, and unimaginable pain, but who then chooses to make the courageous choice to submit to the love of the Divine. This is a beautiful gift to us. I pray that people would be open to receiving it.

This thoughtfully curated book of beautifully written prayers, has helped me reconnect to God. I’ve been inspired, challenged, moved, and daily reminded of Divine love for myself and for every single person on this Earth!As for the negative reviews for this book, 99% of them are not “verified purchases”. They are also using the same photo that circular on social media- not from their own book. And this is a book marketed to women, and many of the reviewers are men just posting a negative comment.If you consider when you are on your knees baring your soul to God, sharing your hopes, fears, confessing your sin, praying desperately for hope, strength, healing... is it always pretty? No it’s messy. It’s human! These prayers are a precious glimpse into prayers of woman that have different hopes, fears, and prayers than I have, and I thank God that I am given this window to witness that.Any discomfort I feel as I am reading, I sit with it, and specifically prayer for God’s wisdom to open the eyes of my heart to be able to listen to understand, and to identify hidden biases within myself.I highly recommend this beautifully written prayer book. I’m so thankful for stumbling across it!Thank you to Sarah Bessey for compiling these and to each writer for their contribution!

This collection of prayers by diverse women of faith is beautiful, heartfelt, and profound. Above all, these prayers are honest -- and that has been hard for some readers (or hangers-on who haven't even read the book) to handle. One prayer in particular has set some "religious" folks fuming: a prayer that begins with the plea for God to help the person praying hate the people who have hurt her and her ancestors and siblings for hundreds of years. But if you stop at the first line and judge it out of context, you never get to the end of her prayer, where she realizes and embraces the fact that God is not a God of hate, but of love, and that even when we have been hurt by others, we are called by God to treat them with love. This IS Godly, Christian prayer.For those who would throw this book out because of one such honest, intimate prayer between a woman and her Creator, you'd also best throw out the Bible, based on the prayer found at Psalm 137:9, and others like it. Read this ENTIRE book, and all its parts in context, and seek to stand in the shoes of the persons offering such candid prayers. It is not human beings' place to defend God or to judge others for things God doesn't even judge them for.This book is powerful, insightful, and lovely -- especially in its honesty.

Many people have said that this book hates white people due to a quote taken out of context. The prayer was written in the style of so many psalms of lament. Dr Walker-Barnes expresses how weary she is in this prayer. She wishes she could just stop caring about the people that hurt her. I know this feeling well from being divorced. Life would be so much easier if I could just stop caring about this man who hurt me so deeply.But her prayer ends in thanksgiving. "But I will trust in you, my Lord. You have kept my love and my hope steadfast even when they have trampled on it." And she resolves to keep loving and hoping. "I pray and I press on, in love." This prayer does not promote hate. Rather it begins in honest frustration and ends in a commitment to love. It is a beautiful and honest prayer in the biblical style of so many psalms that express pain.The rest of the book is filled with beautiful and sometimes poignant prayers that encourage us to bring our whole selves to the Lord in prayer.If you've ever felt like you need to edit yourself before God, this book is for you. The Lord wants us to bring everything, our pain, our anger, our doubts, our joy and victories before him. He's big enough to hold us there and he wants to be in relationship with our whole selves.I encourage you to check it out, and not to be dissuaded by one line taken completely out of context.

This is a truly beautiful collection of prayers from women of all walks of life. Here you’ll find every conceivable approach to prayer, reminding us that we are free from a particular style. Prayers are to be our heartfelt communications with our Father, Creator, Brother, Spirit, Friend - not scripted lines to repeat mindlessly. This is not a book to read through in an evening. Take time to savour and meditate on each one, even ones that don’t seem to resonate immediately. Please do ignore reviews complaining about a specific imprecatory prayer. The Psalms are full of similar ones. Those who are railing against it are no doubt feeling well deserved guilt because they see themselves reflected there.

I found this an excellent and inspiring book. It is full of prayers written by women who pray. True to the prayers we find in the Bible and especially in the Psalms, it can be raw, it can be upsetting, it can be emotional, it can be real and even disturbing...but it can also be uplifting, it can be thoughtful, it can be medatitive, it can turn our focus away from ourselves to others and to God. These are not prayers for a liturgy, they are not prayers carefully written to appeal to the majority and offend no one. Instead they are prayers from the heart. They are the prayers that ask ‘how long Oh Lord’ and shout our frustration, fear, anxiety to the Father as well as the prayers that offer thanks, praise, and call us to a quiet place.I know there has been some controversy surrounding at least one prayer in this book. I can see why. It is not an easy prayer or a ‘let’s all be nice to each other’ prayer. It is a heart cry of someone living the reality. It’s also been quoted only in part and well out of context. I’d strongly encourage people to read it for themselves, in full and in the context of the whole book and with the Psalms in mind.Overall this is a book that by example will encourage you to be real, open,and honest in your prayer. That is never a bad thing.

Though written by a diverse group of women, this book is far more than just another "women's devotional" Starting with the diversity of voices that are represented, as well as the honest, raw, heartfelt meditations, the prayers and reflections in this book touch on some of the deepest and most poignant issues of our times. Rooted in Christian belief and modelled in the spirit of the Psalms, this book weaves together poetry and practice that will resonate with spiritual seekers of any and all backgrounds. It is structured in a way that the reader can easily dip in and out but is short enough to read end to end to appreciate the overall flow from Orientation to Disorientation and finally Reorientation. I have already gifted this to others and am finding that within a few short months it has quickly become integrated with my own spiritual practices.

Had this book on order for months before it finally arrived. It is very different to Sarah's other books because it's not just Sarah's words. That said, one of the things I most love about it is the way she has woven so many different voices together - there is unity in the diversity.The prayers and prayer practices draw on a wide range of traditions and experiences. Some are quite challenging to read...but that's kind of the point. I pray for those who have been unable to see that, whose own experience of prayer is so narrow that they condemn anything that does not conform to their expectations. Some prayers didn't immediately resonate with me, but there is such a breadth and depth in this collection that I know I will return to it in future...and probably other books by the contributors I wasn't already familiar with. I like being challenged, I like being comforted, I like learning, I like being inspired, I like having to think. For all those reasons, I really liked A Rhythm of Prayer.

I’ve been pulling this book out intending to read just one a day and I can get totally lost in it. I feel the words