Prayer is merely conversation with God. Therefore, it shouldn't require a book to explain how to do it. However, prayer can also be a source of perplexity, doubt, confusion, and even discomfort. It was for me. When I tried to pray, I was plagued with doubts. Did my doubts disqualify me? Did I doubt too much to be able to receive anything from God? It seemed like my mind was continually wandering. Did this mean that I wasn't in touch with God, or worse, that He was rejecting me?Did I have enough faith? What was faith supposed to feel like? Was there a particular faith experience? I knew that without faith, it is impossible to please God. Perhaps I wasn't very pleasing to Him.And the doubts didn't stop there. How was I to pray? Did I first need to quiet my mind? Was I supposed to visualize God? Was I supposed to hear His voice? The Christian mystics convinced me that if my prayers weren't being answered, it meant that I wasn't connecting with God. Should I therefore practice some of their techniques? Should I repeat one "sacred word" over and over again?These confusing doubts and questions and many others tormented me. For years, they continued their debilitating work until I was able to come up with biblical answers that satisfied me. This book is not a book of techniques. Instead, it presents a theology of prayer that answers these tormenting questions, thus enabling Christians to find peace and assurance when they pray. I feel privileged by my Lord to have been given these comforting, biblically coherent answers. It has been a great privilege to pass these truths on to my students. And now, through this book, I trust that more students and many others will be strengthened in their faith and blessed as they pray.

Daniel Mann has taught Theology, Old Testament, and Apologetics at the New York School of the Bible for 25 years. He has written several books. One of them is published: Embracing the Darkness: How a Jewish, Sixties, Berkeley Radical Learned to Live with Depression, God's Way. He is now in the process of publishing several books on-line. One of them is called A Theology Primer. He blogs at: Mannsword.blogspot.com and manages a number of Facebook groups, including "Seekers with Questions about Christianity." Daniel had lived in Israel for a time as a Zionist before coming to Christ through a life-threatening chainsaw injury.