The Prayer Experiment: How Praying Like Jesus Realigns Everything - Our Thoughts, Our Hearts, and Our Posture Toward God and the World

One year.

One reluctant pray-er.

One prayer that changed it all.

Prayer is one of the most universal Christian struggles. Many of us feel like we don't "pray right," or we give up because prayer seems formulaic and dry. Deep down we wonder if prayer even makes a difference. Matt Smallbone--an Australian immigrant, pastor, and former touring musician--admits he once felt that way. Then he committed to an experiment: He would pray the Lord's Prayer every day for an entire year. That simple rhythm transformed his life.

The Prayer Experiment flows from that simple practice. Written in a tone that blends the insights of Dallas Willard with the modern sensibility of John Mark Comer, this book weaves together biblical teaching, candid personal stories, and a dose of Aussie humor to explore each phrase of the Lord's Prayer. If you want to pray with greater expectation and grow in your relationship with God, this book will guide you to:

• Identify your "prayer barriers" and how to overcome them
• Learn how Jesus taught us to pray--and how he taught us not to pray
• Reconcile God's goodness with the reality of unanswered prayers
• Transform prayer from a duty-based practice to a personal, meaningful conversation with God
• Establish your new spiritual practice with a thirty-day guide

Here's the mystery: You never outgrow the Lord's Prayer. There's no secret upgrade, no graduate-level version. These words remain--and they are always enough. They are simple enough for a child, deep enough for a theologian, strong enough to hold you for a lifetime. May you find, as you pray these words day by day, that this really is the only prayer you need.

Originally from Australia, Matt Smallbone spent over a decade touring the world as a bass player with artists including Michael W. Smith, Rebecca St. James, and for KING + COUNTRY. He now serves as the lead pastor of Church of the City in downtown Nashville, a fast-growing congregation in Tennessee. Matt lives in Nashville with his wife, four kids, and a rescue dog named Rosie.