Prayers for Today:
A Yearlong Journal of Contemplative Prayer
"Throughout the history of faith, believers have struggled between two realities: how we want to pray and how we actually pray." Thus begins the journey into Prayers for Today: A Yearlong Journey of Contemplative Prayer. This first publication by Dr. Kurt Bjorklund, offers guidance through 260 days of prayers and promptings for prayer. Coupled with Bible reading, these prayers can form the foundation for a personal time with God each day. In a recent interview about his inspiration for this book, Kurt indicated that the concept for the book came from a time in his own life when his prayer life felt dry. Under the guidance of a spiritual mentor, he found prepared prayers and discovered "real depth in them in how people prayed over the centuries and connected to God." He began to collect these prayers to enhance his own devotional prayer time.
Finding this as a way to deepen his own prayer time, Kurt began to compile these prayers into categories of Thanksgiving, Confession, Affirmation, Petition, Renewal, Praise/Adoration, Wisdom/Guidance, Intercession, and Surrender. Moody Publishers showed immediate interest in this unique project because it is unlike many other devotional guides that are available today. With a desire to help others to be able to connect with God in a meaningful way, Kurt completed the project, "It's my hope that this guided prayer devotion will help others to move past the grocery-list prayer mentality that often begins with a 'thank you God for all the good things in my life, now here's what I need.'"
The format of each day begins with scripture to provide a focus that is rooted in the Bible and continues throughout that day. This is followed by written prayers from a variety of spiritual leaders from over the ages and concludes with a 'prayer for today' to prompt individuals in a personalized prayer to God. Available in paperback on amazon.com, a kindle version is also available for download.
"There's a hunger in people to connect with God," shares Kurt. "We get busy, get distracted, and then we get discouraged. As a result we lose heart in prayer. This prayer guide gives a simple built-in discipline to help us connect with God through prayer. The hope is that people will find inspiration and structure to connect to God on a regular basis - to experience a richer, fuller prayer life."
