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Prayer is in a state of confusion in Lutheranism.

• Does prayer bring God to me?
• Is prayer a means of grace?
• Is it a pipeline of communication between a believer and God?
• Is that pipeline a two way street?
• The more prayers that are prayed the better Christian I am?
• The more people that are praying the more likely someone will be taken care of by God?

Dr. Steinmann engagingly upholds the unique biblical Lutheran view of prayer in this book. Many books on prayer fall into the trap of making God so personal that prayer becomes a psychological tool, a sacrament, or an act in which the believer trusts more than the work of Christ. Dr. Steinmann, in a pastoral, yet scholarly manner brings to the reader God's word and the simplicity of prayer.

He summarizes it this way:

1. Prayer does not begin with human effort to pester God until he listens. Prayer begins with God's promise of mercy toward us;
2. Prayer is not a way to manipulate God into answering all our questions or solving our problems in the ways we want them solved. Prayer is designed to help us transcend our problems and troubles by hearing God Himself through His word and Sacraments.

It is a book about prayer through the eyes of a pastoral scholar who uses the prayers in the bible to teach the reader about prayer and its place in the daily piety of the believer.