Naked Prayers

"Mara Measor's Naked Prayers reads like a modern Psalter. Faith. Triumph. Doubt. Confession. More doubt. Celebration. Like King David of Israel, Mara sheds the thin veneer of a plastic faith and vulnerably reveals the honest rhythm walking with the Creator. If you want cliched and Christianeze answers to life, then this book isn't for you. But if you want an authentic and honest reflection on the valleys and mountaintops of the Christian journey, then you won't be able to put this book down."

Preston Sprinkle

Vice President, Eternity Bible College

Author of People to Be Loved

In Naked Prayers, singer-songwriter Mara Measor shares a series of authentic prayers through words, doodles and songs. Imagine the book of Psalms penned in New York City, that the writers liked to doodle, and that they had access to a professional Manhattan recording studio to lay down these songs of intimate meditation.

When starting a prayer room on her college campus, Measor encountered many students who would confess with dismay, "I'm not good at praying." In this book Measor fights the notion of "bad prayers" by suggesting that prayer is simply about getting naked before God: no frills, no pretend, just honest confessions to a loving creator. Her doodles tell the story of an earnest sojourner following God through a big city, and her evocative songs take you along for the ride.

There are a million and one books on prayer floating around Christian circles, but according to Measor, "This is not a how-to-pray book, this is a how-I-have-really-prayed book." Her prayers are honest and open; she celebrates her triumphs, laments her inadequacies, and cries out for help when everything turns dark.

Naked Prayers contains 86 prayers taken from 13 months of Measor's life, and is framed by four stages:

Following God through making a home in NYC

Fretting about the purpose and direction of her life

Falling into a period of depression

Finding her way back to freedom

"Use these prayers in whatever way emboldens you to wipe the dust off your own mirror and get naked before your maker. May they welcome you into a quiet place where you have the freedom to be fully yourself before God."