Make Your Voice Heard in Heaven

Make Your Voice Heard in Heaven: How to Pray With Power, by Barry C. Black, Tyndale Momentum, Carol Stream, Illinois, 2018, 147 pages. Softcover, US$14.99. Reviewed by Stephen Chavez, Adventist Review.

No Adventist pastor has a larger platform on which to preach the principles of God’s kingdom than does Barry C. Black, chaplain of the United States Senate. For more than 14 years Black’s measured, baritone cadence has read the invocation at the beginning of each session of the Senate’s debate and discussion. He has prayed at inauguration events and at weddings and funerals for those whose names are regularly mentioned in news headlines. He also cares for the spiritual needs of his “parishioners” and leads a Bible study for members of congress and their staffs.

The book, Make Your Voice Heard in Heaven, is the result, says Black, of being invited to be keynote speaker at the National Prayer Breakfast in 2017. “With about three months to prepare,” he writes in his introduction, “I began to sleep, eat, think, walk, and talk about prayer.”

Anyone who has heard Black preach will immediately recognize his voice in his writing style. The book is saturated with Bible quotes, Bible illustrations, and bits of verse taken from hymns and spiritual poetry. Black could have filled pages of his book with anecdotes and illustrations taken from a life in which one mixes freely with Washington, D.C., powerbrokers. Instead, Black’s counsel about prayer is beautifully balanced and biblical.

The counsel offered in Make Your Voice Heard is not unique, as far as books about prayer go. Without making extravagant or unrealistic promises, its basic premise is that prayer not only lets God know what’s on our minds and hearts, it’s also one of the best ways for us to stay grounded spiritually.

Make Your Voice Heard is not only a great book to read, but also a great book to share with others.