How to Pray: What the Bible Tells Us About Genuine, Effective Prayer

Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit and watching in this with all perseverance and supplication for all the saints – Ephesians 6:18

Prayer. Satan laughs as he looks at the church today and says to himself, “You can have your Sunday schools and your young people’s small groups, your boys’ and girls’ programs, your vacation Bible schools, your Christian schools, your elegant churches, your retreats, your music programs, your brilliant preachers, and even your revival efforts – as long as you don’t bring the power of almighty God into them by earnest, persistent, believing, mighty prayer.”

It is not necessary that the whole church prays to begin with. Great revivals always begin first in the hearts of a few men and women whom God arouses by His Spirit to believe in Him as a living God, as a God who answers prayer, and upon whose heart He lays a burden from which no rest can be found except in persistent crying unto God.

May God use this book to inspire many who are currently prayerless, or nearly so, to pray earnestly. May God stir up your own heart to be one of those burdened to pray, and to pray until God answers.

About the Author

Reuben Archer Torrey traveled all over the world leading evangelistic tours, preaching to the unsaved. It is believed that more than one hundred thousand were saved under his preaching. Torrey married Clara Smith in 1879, with whom he had five children. In 1908, he helped start the Montrose Bible Conference in Pennsylvania, which continues today. He became dean of the Bible Institute of Los Angeles (now Biola University) in 1912, and was the pastor of the Church of the Open Door in Los Angeles from 1915 to 1924. Torrey continued speaking all over the world and holding Bible conferences. He died in Asheville, North Carolina, on October 26, 1928.