Who listens to twenty hours on prayer in order? Andrew Murray's collection gathers six of his books, Humility, Absolute Surrender, The Ministry of Intercession, The Power of the Blood of Jesus, Lord, Teach Us to Pray and Divine Healing, into one audiobook running twenty hours and seven minutes, and the description numbers several of them as though a sequence were intended. Deciding whether to follow that sequence or graze across it is the first thing this record asks of you.
Two Star Complaints About a Printed Object's Typos
Murray's argument holds steady across all six: the Christian is a full partner in the healing work of Christ, and prayer is how that partnership operates rather than a way of asking for things. Humility sets pride aside and proposes living for others; Absolute Surrender takes up submission; The Ministry of Intercession makes the case for praying on behalf of other people. Everything is written in plain language and built around stories, which is a large part of why it still travels.
Two of the five visible written responses grade this at one and two stars, and both complaints are about typography. One, filed in February 2022, gets two pages in before the errors become distracting and lists them, zeros standing in for the letter O among them, while naming Murray as a lifelong favorite writer. The other, from October 2022, praises the content and objects to the volume of typos and punctuation errors. Both are describing a printed object, and nothing here settles whether the same text underlies this reading.
Gentle conviction is what the enthusiastic end of the column reports. An October 2023 five-star describes insights on practical Christianity that convict the reader quietly rather than harangue, which matches the register of the writing itself. Murray does not argue with an opponent. He assumes agreement and then keeps pressing on what agreement should cost, and that is a demanding posture to sit with for a long stretch, whatever the format.
Abiding in Christ, Close to a Love Story
Twenty hours and seven minutes across six books works out near three and a half hours each, which is a serious quantity of devotional writing for one purchase. Buying these separately in any format would cost considerably more, and the collection also solves a discovery problem: most listeners arrive knowing one Murray title and would never have found Divine Healing or The Power of the Blood of Jesus on their own. As an introduction to a body of work, the packaging is doing real service.
Reading a sentence and then stopping to think about it is how one August 2022 five-star describes using this, alongside the Bible, after arriving in search of spiritual reading and finding more than expected. That entry singles out a passage on abiding in Christ as something close to a love story in its cadence. It also tells you the tempo the material wants, which is not the tempo most of us apply to a twenty hour file.
Simple language is the description's own claim for Murray, and simple language is precisely what survives being heard. Abstract theology read aloud collapses quickly; concrete instruction and story do not. Prayer for loved ones through daily conversation with God, submission as a practice rather than a doctrine, hope held onto in defeat: these are ideas a listener can carry off into an ordinary day, which is the fairest test of whether devotional audio works at all.
A Linear File Refuses Annotation Absolutely
One four-star from March 2023 puts the format problem plainly: after listening to a good deal of it, that listener went and bought the book in order to highlight passages and make notes. Devotional writing invites annotation, and a linear file refuses annotation absolutely. Anyone intending to study rather than absorb should plan on owning a text alongside the recording, which turns a single purchase into two.
Whoever filed this record chose biographies and memoirs, literature and fiction, and a tag reading Diaries and Correspondence, none of which describes a six-volume devotional on prayer. The practical cost falls on discovery. A listener browsing religion and spirituality will not meet this record at all, while the people who do meet it are looking for a memoir or a correspondence and will find neither. Nothing about the classification reflects the contents.
Boundaries between the six are the other practical gap. The description numbers Absolute Surrender as book two and The Ministry of Intercession as book three, so an order exists, but the record itself gives no indication of where each work begins inside twenty hours, and the series fields sit empty. If you want to hear Humility on its own before committing to the rest, this listing will not tell you where to start it.
Tom Chandler Reads for Those Already Inside
Devotional listeners who already keep a daily reading practice will get the most from this, above all anyone who has met Murray through a single title and wants the rest without hunting down six separate editions. It suits a listener working through a season of illness or discouragement too, since divine healing and holding onto hope are treated at length rather than in passing. Small groups looking for shared material will find plenty here to work through slowly.
Twenty hours is the wrong purchase if you want a single book to sit with, or if devotional prose read continuously puts you to sleep, which it does to a great many people who admire it on the page. It is also the wrong purchase for a reader outside the tradition looking for an account of Christian prayer from a distance, because Murray writes from inside belief to people who already share it, and never pauses to explain the assumption.
The Short Version
- Narration: Tom Chandler carries all six books, which puts a single voice across twenty hours of continuous devotional prose.
- Themes: Prayer as partnership, humility and surrender, intercession for others, healing and perseverance
- Mood: Steady and searching, closer to a retreat than to a study
- Verdict: Remarkable value for a devotional listener, provided you accept that nothing here can be underlined.
Does the audiobook include Murray's material on divine healing?
Yes. Divine Healing is one of the six works, and The Power of the Blood of Jesus sits alongside it, so healing is treated at length rather than in passing. The collection also takes up how the Holy Spirit is understood to work on physical bodies, which is a strand plenty of prayer books avoid entirely.
Is this audiobook suitable for daily devotional use?
It fits that use better than a straight listen. The writing is built around single ideas and stories, which lets you take twenty minutes at a time and stop. Listening straight through is possible but works against the material, since these were written to be dwelt on rather than consumed.
Is Andrew Murray hard going for a newcomer?
Not linguistically. The prose is plain and story-driven, and the collection assumes no theological training. What it does assume is shared belief, so a reader coming from outside Christianity will find the arguments addressed to someone else, and the tone unrelentingly earnest across a very long file.
