Sacred Prayers to God

by Mick Pollitt ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 30, 2016

Pollitt offers 500 prayers to God in this Christian volume.

With hundreds to choose from, this debut book contains prayers for all manner of situations and times of difficulty. No table of contents or thematic index is present to guide the potential supplicant, however: Pollitt advises readers to pray before opening this journal so that Jesus will help them select the specific invocation they need that day. Each page begins with a prayer, opening, like a letter, with “Dearest Jesus” and ending with “Thank you Jesus, Amen.” The prayers differ in tone, purpose, and language. Some seek to replicate the formal language of the King James Bible: “Show unto me the beauty and hidden fruits of the spirit in all your holy chosen people and bridle my tongue with angels.” Others are composed in a more contemporary register: “You turned the water into wine, four jugs, 200% pure, changed my income.” Some are curiously specific: “Lord Jesus, thank you for your mighty supernatural matchless power, show unto me new stuff at my present family business.” The majority of each page is given over to blank lines, which are marked as “Sacred space to write your visions on how this prayer has blessed or changed your life.” There are enough lines in these sections that most readers should be able to use the prayers more than once before filling up the space. The fact that Pollitt managed to compose so many discrete prayers is indeed impressive. Even so, the categorization of the devotions and the journaling space beneath them as “sacred” feels a bit exploitative considering how lazily the book is formatted (prayers and lines from one page frequently encroach onto the next) and how many typos are present in the text (“Jobe” instead of Job). While the journaling aspect of the book is intriguing, it casts the act of prayer in transactional terms that some religious readers will likely find gauche. Those looking for daily pre-written prayers can certainly find better crafted alternatives elsewhere, either online or published in volumes smaller than a math textbook.

A prayer journal that lacks polish and an effective presentation.

Pub Date: March 30, 2016

ISBN: 978-1-4984-6732-2

Page Count: 508

Publisher: Xulon Press

Review Posted Online: July 22, 2016

Review Program: Kirkus Indie

Categories:

GENERAL NONFICTION