The Calhoun minister said he wrote and re-wrote his book "Why God Waits For You To Pray" before it was ready for publishing and its release in December 2007. "There's a whole genre of prayer books, E.M. Bounds, people like that, A.W. Tozer, these books that are usually not very long, but they have a flavor of helping you want to pray, motivating you to pray," Roberts said. "This was written along those same lines, just to motivate the person not only to study prayer a little bit, but to really get motivated to pray more often and more seriously." Prayer has been a topic of interest for Roberts since the late '70s, when he began to study the depths of the subject and attempt to apply it to the local church. "It just became one of those things I was passionate about, trying to help people grow intimate with God, get to the real issue which is intimacy with God; do you know him, do you have conversations with him," Roberts said. "That's really what prayer is, a conversation with God." Roberts began teaching on the subject, and was soon asked to hold seminars in He said he has probably done almost 100 prayer seminars different churches.in churches and other arenas. Meanwhile, Roberts has been in ministry since 1975. The Mississippi native is the preaching minister at Calhoun Church of Christ. For several years in the 1990s, Roberts said he also worked with World Radio based at White's Ferry Road Church of Christ in West Monroe, organizing a prayer ministry and editing the news. Writing has also long been an interest for Roberts, and his articles have appeared in publications such as Pray! Magazine. Roberts went through Xulon Press, a company in He might like to write another book again, but it's easier to talk about than to complete. "Writing the book is only half the work," he said. "The other half is getting it out there where people can see it and read it, so it takes awhile to get it out where it's visible. "There could be much more said about prayer, but this is something that's been on my mind, heart for a long time," he said. Once a book is published these days, the vehicle for selling it is much more open than it once was, he said. "It's kind of a new day; your book can be all over the place and not even be Florida, to have "Why God Waits For You To Pray" published.in a bookstore," Roberts said. "It's selling pretty well on the Internet, from what I understand." While Blessings Bookstore in West Monroe is the only shop to carry Roberts' book locally, several Web sites, such as barnesandnoble.com and amazon.com, have his book available. "Blessings has been really good to us; I've done book signings, and (on April 5) I taught a seminar on prayer, and then we signed books," he said. "It's been good." Roberts said he has received several comments of feedback, including that the book has helped the reader to refresh his or her prayer life, and it was an easy and quick read. "Ever since I was a kid, I tried to write," Roberts said. "I've always enjoyed books, and I always wanted to write books, so here we are." ON THE WEB ON THE WEB Prayer Blog : prayertalk.blogspot.com Why God Waits : www.whygodwaits.com