Talking with the Trinity: Personally and Publicly by Carol J. Slager

In this useful and detailed resource on prayer, author Carol Slager, devotional speaker, Bible study teacher, and leader of her church’s prayer ministries, explores personal and public prayer to the triune God. Setting the framework for her discussion, Slager writes, “I believe that all people pray. Praying is simply a verbal way that humans reach out to God. I suppose that even unbelievers and atheists unknowingly connect with God when they exclaim or curse using his name or write acronyms that reference him. Praying, with or without heart commitment, is an astounding action that unites earth and heaven. When humans pray, we are connecting with the living God who listens, with the loving God who desires relationship, and with the sovereign God who accomplishes with power.” 

Slager shares anecdotes from her own prayer journey—from learning as a child to pray with her family, to in her 40s becoming aware of the Holy Spirit’s voice guiding her in the ordinary events of her life.  

Discussing public prayers, which can take place in myriad circumstances and places, Slager addresses the fear many people feel. Offering encouragement, she writes, “I believe that God accepts our prayers however they are crafted. I might liken them to creating homemade Valentines; we try to avoid glue smears and crooked writing, but we know that the receiver will delight in them regardless. Just so, I hope that we will want to give God our best expressions of love, artisanship, honor, and partnership.” Slager includes chapters on prayers spoken on the spot, creating long prayers, templates for longer public prayers, and a compilation of longer prayers arranged to follow a calendar year’s chronology.  

In order to honor God’s majesty, Slager capitalizes all pronouns referring to God. However, somewhat jarring and disconcerting for this reader was her reference to the Three-in-One as Them, a pronoun not usually applied to the Trinity. (WestBow Press)