Sunday, January 25, 2015

Book Review "Before Amen" By Max Lucado

   We all struggle with prayer in our walk with Jesus, we feel like we have to have this grandiose speech all planned out every time we go to pray.  This feels daunting to us leaving us thinking "how am I going to do this?" We have made prayer so complicated and created it to be a burden that is so heavy to bear.   We get so weighed down with this burden that we lose sight of our Jesus, as we become so focused on carrying this burden. Yuck!  This is not how our prayer walk with Jesus was ever intended to be.  Max Lucado writes about how to bypass all this complexity of our own making and come back to the heart of biblical based prayer in his book, Before Amen.


(photo courtesy of Family Christian Stores - http://www.familychristian.com/catalog/product/view/id/284663/ )

   We aren't alone in our struggle with prayer.  Max notes on page 3, "The first followers of Jesus needed prayer guidance.  In fact, the only tutorial they every requested was prayer."  Max further writes on page 6 about what Jesus taught the disciples, "He gave them a quotable, repeatable, portable prayer.(Luke 11:1-4)."  He continues on page 6 & 7, "Could you use the same?  It seems to me that the prayers of the Bible can be distilled into one.  The result is a simple, easy-to-remember, pocket-size prayer: "Father, you are good.  I need help.  Heal me and forgive me. They need help.  Thank you.  In Jesus' name, Amen.""  Umm, wow!! A concise prayer without all the pomp and circumstance, this is what we need to renew and revive our prayer life with our Jesus.  We can begin again and simply talk with our Savior.  

   To help us further, Max breaks down the "Pocket Prayer" into chapters that provide us with the biblical background and knowledge to understand the hows and whys of this prayer.  He also encourages us more by providing study guide questions for each chapter to help us grow deeper in our understanding of prayer.  How wonderful that Max gives a biblical place to start with prayer, one that is simple and not complicated like we make it to be.  He points out we just have to begin and the rest will fall into place as we pray. We can rest in that comfort and easily pray to our Jesus because He so wants to talk with us. Max has simply written a beautiful book that enriches the lives of all who read it.  

Check it out!! Before Amen by Max Lucado is Family Christian Stores' 2015 Book of the Year.  You can purchase your own copy from Family Christian Stores on sale for  $9.99 now through Thursday, January 29, 2015, just follow the link below!

http://www.familychristian.com/catalog/product/view/id/284663/


No comments:

Post a Comment