Joanna Williams

Pray Without Ceasing

“I have never felt so seen by a book in my entire life.”

I've been a Christian for fifteen years and I have never been able to pray the way I've always wanted to. The first night I opened this book to the anxiety section, read the prayer out loud, and just wept. Someone finally understood. I've now bought six copies.

— Michelle

Pray Without Ceasing

“I'm crying writing this review.”

My mother passed away in February and I couldn't pray at all after she died. A friend sent me this book and I opened it to the grief section and read the prayer out loud because I had nothing else. Those were the first words I'd written in weeks. It hasn't fixed the grief but it has given me somewhere to put it.

— Rachel

Pray Without Ceasing

“This book has become my lifeline.”

I have struggled with insomnia and anxiety for years and 2am is my worst hour. Now I keep this on my nightstand open to the midnight section and read a prayer in the dark. Last Tuesday I read the one for when worries won't stop and I actually fell back asleep before I finished it.

— Angela

Dear God

“I finally had permission to not have it together.”

I have tried to pray through anxiety for years and always ended up feeling like I was doing it wrong. This journal names the emotion before it ever asks you to pray about it, and something about that unlocked me. The "Addressing the Emotion" sections read like someone sitting with you in the dark instead of handing you a verse and walking away. The scripted prayers at the end of each chapter are short enough to read through tears and honest enough to mean them. I've read the chapter on feeling overwhelmed four times now.

— Sarah

Dear God

“The scripted prayers were my lifeline.”

My husband and I went through a season where I could not form a sentence to God. I would sit down to pray and just stare at the wall. A friend gave me Dear God and I turned straight to the chapter on feeling lost and confused. I read the prayer out loud, word for word, because I had nothing of my own. I did that every morning for three weeks. Then one morning I noticed I had started adding my own words at the end without realizing it. That was the moment I knew I was going to be okay. This journal gave me back my voice.

— Bethany

Dear God

“The chapter on shame undid me.”

I have carried a specific failure for over a decade and never once brought it to God because I was convinced He was disappointed in me. The chapter on feeling ashamed and unworthy walked me through the story of the woman caught in adultery, and then the scripted prayer had me name my sin out loud for the first time in my life. I sat on my bathroom floor and cried for an hour. But they were the good kind of tears. The kind that come when you finally stop hiding. I have read that prayer every Sunday since.

— Marisol

Praying Through the Bible

“This is not a devotional. It's a training manual.”

I have read a lot of books about prayer and most of them tell you what prayer should look like from a distance. This one puts you inside the actual prayers. Every chapter starts with a real person, in a real mess, praying a real prayer, and then it walks through the anatomy of that prayer one piece at a time. I learned more about intercession from the chapter on Abraham negotiating for Sodom than I have from twenty years of sermons. And the chapter on Cain, of all people, taught me that God hears even the prayers we are ashamed to pray. I finished this book feeling like I had been given a set of tools.

— David

Praying Through the Bible

“The seven-step framework changed how I read my Bible.”

I have read the story of Hannah and the story of the thief on the cross dozens of times and never once thought to study them as prayers. This book opened my Bible in a way I did not expect. Every chapter has the same structure, but it never feels formulaic. You read the Scripture first, then you look at the circumstances, the high points of the prayer, the questions, the results, the lesson, and the call to action, and by the time you get to the closing prayer you feel like you have actually learned something you can use. I have started doing the same seven steps on my own with other passages. That is the highest compliment I can give a study guide.

— Naomi

Praying Through the Bible

“The chapter on the thief on the cross gutted me.”

I came to this book during a season where I felt like I had wasted too much of my life and that God had every right to pass me over. The chapter on the thief on the cross, the one who asked Jesus to remember him in the last minute of his life, undid me. The way Joanna walks through the anatomy of that prayer, the way she shows you how God answered him before he had time to do a single good work, wrecked me in the best way. I sat with that chapter for three days. I will not forget it. This book is for anyone who has ever believed they were too far gone.

— Tomás