Hank Hanegraaff’s The Prayer of Jesus is a brief commentary on the Lord’s Prayer. While Hanegraaff notes that he was inspired to write the book in response to the numerous queries he received about Wilkinson’s The Prayer of Jabez, he rarely interacts with the book and certainly cannot be said to be critical of it. Hanegraaff’s book offers a much-needed corrective to some of the perceived excesses within The Prayer of Jabez and that it therefore stands almost as a companion volume with it. Certainly any who are enamored with The Prayer of Jabez should read Hanegraaff’s book for balance.

It is written for the layman and would, I believe, be quite helpful in helping one understand some of the foundational elements of prayer. One of the more frustrating characteristics of this book, and of Hanegraaff’s writing in general, is his all-too-frequent use of alliteration that is occasionally just too funny to endure (i.e., “Christian leaders all too often pray for masses and classes and in the end achieve little more than flashes and ashes.” p.12). Yet this is just a quirk of his writing style. The content is good, if simplistic, and the illustrations are well-chosen and helpful. In all, I would not hesitate to give this book to a new believer, or one who is seeking a new life of prayer.