Michael W Smith explores the extraordinary power of ordinary prayer in new book

Grammy and Dove Award winning worship artist Michael W Smith is about to release his twelfth book, 'A Simple Blessing: The Extraordinary Power of an Ordinary Prayer'.

Out from Zondervan in March, Smith seeks in the book to encourage and inspire readers to examine their hearts and learn to experience God’s blessing through prayer, just he and others have done, and speak words of blessing to others that draw them closer to the heart of God.

The book is inspired by his own encounters with prayer through the good times and bad but is a particular response to the movement of prayer he has begun to experience.

Recently, Smith has felt led to close his concerts with a prayer of blessing over his audience - a simple gesture that triggered a response he feels is unlike anything he’s experienced in his 28 years of ministry.

Letters and e-mails poured in, relaying stories of the encouragement, empowerment and hope brought to troubled lives.

It was through this response from fans that Smith came to realise that God’s blessings are measured more by the flourishing of character in adversity than the flourishing of possessions, and that the result in such is overflowing joy and peace.

He breaks down his prayer into six specific blessings in his book - a collaboration with accomplished writer Thomas Williams.

The six areas covered are: What does it mean to pray for others?; The prayer for spiritual health; the prayer for a pure mind; the prayer for personal holiness; the prayer for backyard blessings, and the prayer for spiritual victory.

Each chapter begins with a quote containing the segment of the blessing it will address. Then the chapter explains the value of the blessing and gives practical guidance on how to open oneself to the blessing and enjoy its benefits.

Following the blessing Smith goes on to describe how the impact of our culture is determining how our minds are affected (or not) by entertainment.

“We’re being conditioned to accept the negative as the normal," he says.

"From time to time I’ve expressed to friends my disappointment with a TV show or my longing for a movie with a hero I could admire for his values or his refusal to compromise.

"More often than not, the response I get is that I’m not moving with the times. The movies of the past were not realistic, they tell me.

"They want movie heroes with real flaws like the rest of us. No one is altogether pure or altogether evil. And if movies, TV shows, and novels are honest, they will give us characters who reflect that natural mixture.”

And then in approaching the value of the blessing he says : “I know that today’s movie critics would dismiss films such as ‘It’s a Wonderful Life’ as unrealistic, wishful fantasies with impossibly good heroes and sappy happy-ever-after endings…I beg to differ.

"The grunge, corruption, immorality, and violence that critics like to call reality are not reality at all.

"The true reality is found beneath the blight in what God created in the beginning — the perfection of the world as he originally made it. Only the good that God created is real.

"The story God wrote has a happy-ever-after ending that promises eternal joy to those who focus on the pure and lovely and adopt true character into their lives.

"If we focus our eyes and ears on things that give us glimpses of that happy reality, it will go a long way toward enabling us to receive the blessings God wants to pour into us.”