Book Review: Yours Is the Day, Lord, Yours is the Night

Is there room in the modern, evangelical Protestant life for a prayer book?  Shouldn't our prayers be spontaneous, free-flowing from the heart rather than read from the page?  Isn't that what we've been taught is the more authentic prayer?

In answer, let me ask you to consider this unique collection the next time you're looking for a way to enrich your prayer life.

Yours is the Day, Lord, Yours is the Night is a collection of prayers taken from Protestant, Roman Catholic, and Eastern Orthodox sources. You'll find prayers taken from the Book of Common Prayer, prayers authored by well-known figures from Christian history: Bernard of Clairvaux, Thomas Aquinas, St. Patrick of Ireland, and John Wesley. You'll find excerpts from poetry, verses of Psalms, and anonymous inscriptions found in European cathedrals.

These morning and evening prayers are not meant to replace your daily prayers, but rather to enhance and enrich them, much like a devotional book does not replace Bible study, but grounds it in daily living.

I love this book and it sits alongside my devotional book by the chair where I drink my morning coffee.  Like my daily devotion, sometimes these prayers say exactly what my heart is feeling, though I cannot put it in words myself.  Over the past few years I've been toying with the idea of getting a prayer book to help me develop a better daily practice of praying.  But nothing seemed to fit until I found this book.  Not only has it given me a springboard for my own prayers, it has connected me with believers throughout the ages who also long for a closeness with God and peace in the midst of life's troubles.

Highly recommended.

Yours is the Day, Lord, Yours is the Night (A Morning and Evening Prayer Book) edited by Jeanie and David Gushee, Thomas Nelson, 2012.

I received a copy of this book from Thomas Nelson in return for an honest review.