My Heart, Ever His: Prayers for Women by Barbara Rainey


My Heart, Ever His by Barbara Rainey is a beautiful collection of prayers for women. What I especially love about this book is that it is beautiful to look at and the prayers are beautiful--but they are real too.

My Heart, Ever His has 40 prayers in this book that are written to encourage women to talk to God honestly and openly. These prayers are transparent and so down-to-earth. I could relate to so much of what she was saying in them. In the introduction, Rainey invites the reader to think of these prayers as being in the same style as the psalms. Many times, the psalmists prayed honestly and openly baring their whole hearts. While the prayers are not all "happy-life-is-great prayers," they do include praises for God even though she stars some of them out honestly. It took her years to realize that God is not offended by our honest feelings and complaints but instead He knows our feelings anyway. However, she notes that the psalms almost always end in words of praise to God. She said, "The key to bringing my woes to God was turning the pouring out of my heart in complaint to words of surrender and trust before closing with amen."

I like My Heart, Ever His and this book is a keeper for me. Rainey hopes that readers will be read slowly. She says readers may want to write in the book and add their own words or underline portions that resonate with them. At first I kind of gasped internally, as I grew up in that era where we didn't write in books. Then I thought that sounded like a great idea. I think she is right and I love the idea of using this book to look to God in a way that works for me using these prayers as a basis for turning to God when I sometimes can't find the words that I need. I also like that she references Scripture at the bottom of the prayers that would be good to look up and make the basis for her written prayer. I also think this a book for woman of all ages. It would also make a good gift as each page is pretty like the cover and it has a ribbon marker. Throughout My Heart, Ever His, I like that her heart encourages my heart to turn towards God in whatever emotions or situations I may be in at the time.

I received a copy of this book from the publisher. All opinions within this review are my own.

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