John Onwuchekwa’s book of What If I Don’t Desire to Pray? is part of a “Church Questions” series of quick-reads published by 9 Marks and Crossway. Barely 60 pages, this mini-book can easily be finished in one or two sittings.

I’m often convicted that my prayer life is not as strong as it could be. This appears to be a challenge among other Christians who, like me, were strong skeptics before coming to faith in Christ and who are interested in apologetics and logic-based reasons for following Christ. Unlike others, being motivated to read and study the Bible has never been a challenge for me. I’m wired up to be a reader and my natural tendency to ask questions and seek answers is one of the reasons I was a skeptic to begin with. Yet, as I’ve heard even well-known Christian apologists like Greg Koukl and J. Warner Wallace (both former skeptics) admit, prayer doesn’t always come easily for those wired up like me.

Short books like this can be either so brief they’re little help or their briefness cuts through a lot of unneeded wordiness and gets right to the heart of the issue. Let’s be upfront; a short book like this can’t do the important subject of prayer justice. A book like Tim Keller’s Prayer is much more adequate if you want to tackle the subject more thoroughly. No, Onwuchekwa’s mini-book can’t possibly go into the theology behind prayer or how to make sense of prayer to a God who knows all your thoughts and needs before you say them, but he does tackle (though briefly) exactly what the title of the book tells you is the focus of the book.

What it comes down to for Onwuchekwa is that it’s not about changing your regimen or instilling more discipline. He doesn’t focus on giving tips for prayer strategies or on finding more quality time to pray or on creating a better pray routine (though he does recommend keeping a pray journal of sorts). Instead, he encourages us to focus on the person and work of Christ, which will lead to a deeper desire to grow closer to Christ, and, thus, give us more desire to pray.

Another helpful idea Onwuchekwa focuses on is the importance of corporate prayer and how praying with others can not only teach us how to pray, but grow our desire to pray. This was an important point to add to the conversation. Often books on prayer only focus on individual prayer, but as followers of Christ, we’re part of a body of believers. Your faith is never just about you and Jesus, so it’s a good bit of advice to not neglect praying with your brothers and sisters in Christ.

Onwuchekwa writes, “Passion for prayer is often more caught than taught. In my own experience, I’ve found that nothing increases my desire for prayer more than seeing and being around people who pray… Praying together isn’t cheating; it’s not a loophole. Solo prayers aren’t worth more than corporate ones. Far from being a loophole, corporate prayer is the very tool God gives us to help us get to know him better.”

*Crossway provided a free copy of this book for review.