Thanks Netgalley for allowing me to read this book! The title and this beautiful cover drew me in and i was excited to read this book! I will be recommending this book to others for readers advisory.

Pray First is an excellent book for any believer who finds themselves struggling with prayer. Or even the person with a confident prayer life. I believe any Christian can get some insight and new tips from the knowledge Chris Hodges provides throughout Pray First.

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Pray First
The Transformative Power of a Life Built on Prayer
By: Chris Hodges
Narrated by: Chris Hodges
5.0 out of 5 stars

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Publisher's summary
Read by the author.

Prayer is the lifeblood of the Christian faith--but many followers of Jesus still struggle to make prayer part of their daily lives. In Pray First, bestselling author and pastor Chris Hodges shows us how to make prayer a first response instead of a last resort.

Why is it that so many Christians find it difficult to develop a vibrant and exciting prayer life? Even though prayer is foundational to the Christian life, many are intimidated or uncertain about how to talk to God. Prayer feels quaint and old-fashioned to some, sacred and uncomfortable to others. It's not a lack of inspiration--there's plenty of that. And it's not that we don't realize prayer is important--we know it is. So, what's the issue?

Pastor Chris Hodges has spent years studying the prayers of the Bible and the models of prayer that the scriptures provide for Christians. Now, he shares the teachings and methods he's used to successfully help hundreds of thousands of people understand how to spend time in conversation with God--and enjoy every minute.

Pray First will give you the tools you need to:

Bring the joy back into your time with God
Take a journey through the prayers of the Bible, which reveal how to make prayer more personal and powerful
Learn about fasting, an often overlooked but powerful discipline that's a vital companio

This book was truly a wonderful help to approaching my prayer life! It was simple and straightforward on a subject that can get very complicated in theology and doctrine. The best part was the great examples of prayers and the biblical explanations behind them. Strongly rooted in the Word, Pastor Hughes knows his stuff. A must read for anyone who wants to uncomplicate or enrich their prayer life- which should be all of us! Pray First!! #prayfirst #chrishodges #netgalley #goodreads

Pray First! A great book on prayer that is comprehensive and practical. I really enjoyed the chapter on the prayer of Moses. I recommend this book anyone who desires a Biblical view of prayer and wants to grow deeper in their prayer times.

This is a helpful primer for those who want to learn the basics of prayer.. For those who would like to better understand what the Bible says about prayer and how to practice this dsicipline, this handbook is a great resource. I can see it being used in a study or class on prayer.

This book is typical of Chris Hodges' style: short chapters with relevant topics that are digestible in bursts of understanding, and chapters that build on each other. The style makes it easy to read and divide into bursts of knowledge (similar to a Bible study focus) or to read in larger chunks.
Chris divides the book into 3 sections:
The first section focuses generally on the general concepts and purpose of prayer. It builds a good foundation on why prayer is important and the impact it has on a Christian's life. The main concept being the importance of a consistent prayer life in building a relationship with God.
The second section uses multiple Biblical examples of prayer to build a repertoire of focus areas and patterns in prayer. I thought it was provocative in stirring thought on various ways to approach prayer and communication with God.
The final section connected prayer and fasting, including defining the similarities and differences in the 2 disciplines. The main focus on how prayer increases connection with God and fasting decreases connection with the distractions of the world, allowing more opportunity to connect with God. I thought the direction and personal examples of the benefits of fasting were encouraging and challenging.
In general, there was good encouragement and reminders of the benefits of prayer throughout the book, although I thought the details lack some thoroughness I was craving. A good and encouraging book, but not a 5 star rating as it left me wishing for more.

I love the whole "pray first" idea, which is what we all should be doing! Overall, I really like this book a lot. You can learn much from the author's experience(s), and from the Scripture. I also like very much that the author states that this is not a magical formula, etc. The one thing I didn't love is the "Prayer of Moses". It is not an actual prayer, and is stretching it (the Scripture), in my opinion. That whole section of the book was my least favorite.
Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for the advance e-copy of this book!!
All opinions expressed are entirely my own.

PRAY FIRST - GOD Is Waiting

First of, I would like to say that I love the fact that Chris Hodges outlined this book into three parts, which are:
1. PART 1: Learning About Prayer
2. PART 2: Prayer Models and How To Use Them
3. PART 3: Prayer and Fasting
This makes reading the book very smooth, instead of having jump back and forth to similiar topics.

In Part 1, the author stresses the importance of praying without ceasing. He states that Jesus' followers devoted themselves to prayer (Acts 2: 42) and prayed continuously and constantly, and in Acts 1: 14, the apostle Paul wrote, “Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you”

The author emphasis the fact that, "The goal of being focused and committed to prayer is relationship, not religion", because making prayer a priority ensures that we won’t minimize it as simply our default SOS when we need help.

When praying, we should reference scripture because Jesus said, “Everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock” (Matthew 7: 24 niv), so when we pray God’s promises, we’re putting Jesus’ words into the fact that we’re willing to rely on God.

In Part 2, the author discusses several prayer models and how to use them. The most prevalent models are listed below:
1. The Prayer of Jesus
2. The Prayer of Moses
3. The Prayer of Jabez
4. The Prayer of the Sheep
5. The Prayers for the Lost
6. Warfare Prayers
7. The Prayer for Us

Each of the above prayer category is discussed in detail.
Finally, in Part 3, the author discusses one of my favorite topics: Prayer and Fasting. He states that fasting is about less of us and more of God, and is mentioned in the Bible more than seventy times! He discusses some of the many reasons why one should fast.

He states that there are nine fasts in the bible, but he has chosen four types to discuss in this book. Additionally, he has provided guidelines for doing a 21-Day Fast.

I love this book, the information on prayer and fasting is great for a novice or acquired practitioner. Highly recommend.

This book was timely for me. I loved the author's approach to prayer and his honesty in struggling to make prayer the first thing when faced with anything. The examples in scripture of passionate prayer really helped me to see how much prayer has to be the first thing in my own life.

I want to thank Netgalley and the author for gifting me the ebook. As a christian, this was a very good book. I really enjoyed it and had very insightful christian information on prayer. Highly recommend for all christian's out there. Always remember pray without ceasing.

A very good little book about prayer. Hodges emphasizes the importance of prayer and offers many practical tips for better prayer. I think it would be a good tool for recentering prayer life from time to time.

There's also many tips for fasting towards the end, which were excellent.

I think that prayer is vital to have a close relationship with God as it is our way of communicating with Him. That and reading daily from our Bible and setting aside special time with God. I admit to not being as faithful inthis as i should be. That is why I was so drawn to read this book about prayer. I am happy to say that it has been evrthingthat I ad hoped it would b. i have learned so much with Chris's guidance and explanation of prayer. this book is one that I will keep and refer back to. I highly recommend this great resource.

Plenty of examples, steps, and actual prayers. Prayer needs to be the first thing we do; not an afterthought.

This is such a wonderful book. This book is a great tool for making prayer an integral part of our day. I thoroughly enjoyed it and will continue to use this as a reminder and a guide.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an e-arc in exchange for an unbiased review.

We sometimes expect that prayer comes naturally to Christians, but that isn’t necessarily the case. Even when a believer feels comfortable praying, it doesn’t mean that their prayer style will lead them to a deep and fulfilling relationship with God. Author Chris Hodges’s Pray First outlines the ‘transformative power of a life built on prayer’.

When I first read the title “Pray First”, I made an assumption that the book would be a quick, easy, and fluffy read. I quickly learned it is anything but! Instead, Pray First is 272 pages packed with insight, guidance, and many examples that serve as food for thought as the reader determines what approaches might work best for their own prayer journey.

The book is broken into three sections that include an extensive foundation of prayer, several prayer models, and how and why prayer and fasting work together. As someone who isn’t accustomed to sacrificial fasting, I appreciated the comprehensive segment about fasting and why fasting is an important part of praying – whether the fast is from food or another sacrificial aspect, such as social media.

Pastor Hodges has an impressive following at his church and it’s easy to see why after reading Pray First. He has an engaging style and is clearly enthusiastic about prayer, as evidenced by the incredible foundation of prayer he’s established in his church community. Although I had a couple of differences of opinion, I was still impressed with and inspired by this book as a whole. Anyone who’s looking to amp up their prayer life will certainly benefit from reading this book.

I loved this book! My prayer life was lacking greatly due to not having any examples to learn from i tried and failed so many times to make it a habit a part of daily life. This book was so insightful and I often found myself thinking the examples of experiences can't right from my life. So relatable. Loved it so much I bought my own book so i caught highlight & read! Thank you for making daily prayer seem not only necessary but also very doable and natural.

Pray First highlights the importance of prayer and how it should be the first thing a Christian does and continues to do throughout their day. I love how the book breaks down the Lord’s Prayer as well as other prayers said by others in the Bible such as Abraham. The in depth study of prayer gives the reader so much scripture and insight into the hows of prayer and the power of it. Would highly recommend this book to anyone looking to start, improve or grow their prayer life.

While I don’t feel this book presented anything new on the topic of prayer, I appreciate the reminders and inspiration. I’m glad he wrote on fasting and can’t wait to be more intentional in adding that practice to my life.

I tend to measure the usefulness of a book on prayer on whether it inspires me to pray more. This book does just that and not just because it provides a variety of prayers to pray. Chris Hodges church in Birmingham, Alabama has a well known reputation for being a praying church. They don't just say they do it but they actually do it as individuals, intercessors for the needs of congregants and others and corporately at weekly prayer meetings and twice annual 21-day prayer and fasting cycles.

Hodges leads from the front as is clearly evident in this book both from his own personal reflections on the significance of prayer in his life and that of the church but from the various models he provides in this book. These models come from a "Pray First Prayer Guide" that the church has been using for many years now.

The book is split into three sections:
1. Lessons on Prayer - it's importance in terms of knowing God
2. Prayer Models and How to Use them - this includes such items as the Lord's Prayer, Interceding for others, spiritual warfare prayers and the like
3. Prayer and Fasting - once again, fasting has been very important in Hodges and the church's life. This section delves in the why and how plus provides some great examples of fasting in the Bible.

I thoroughly recommend this book as it equipped me to pray. I love praying but like most of us go through dry seasons and this book stimulated my prayer life in different ways. I'm a great believer in using other people's prayers to enhance one's prayer life. Hodges in supplying the various prayer models provides the prayers he uses. I find the Holy Spirit engages and those prayers are embellished to help me to draw closer to God.

I appreciated the simplicity of the fasting section. We can over-complicate fasting and I like the fact that Hodges provides the outline of his church's 21-day prayer and fasting practice. Perfectly timed for the beginning of a new year.

I feel very fortunate receiving an early ebook copy from the publisher via NetGalley and this had no bearing on my review. I fully expect to purchase a paper version of the book as I'm likely to refer to it frequently.