D. A. Carson works through the recorded prayers of the apostle Paul and asks what they reveal about Paul's priorities - and by contrast about ours. God does not demand hectic church programs and frenetic schedules, Carson argues; he wants his people to know him more intimately, and Paul's prayers show what a man asks for when that is what he is after. Each chapter expounds a passage and then turns it toward the reader's own praying.

Originally published as A Call to Spiritual Reformation and revised for this second edition, the book has had a long life because it does not treat prayer as a technique. Carson addresses the hard questions honestly - unanswered prayer, praying for the sick, the relation of prayer to God's sovereignty - and the result is a book that works for private reading, for small groups, and as a text in courses on prayer and pastoral ministry.