Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $9.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    Before Amen: The Power of a Simple Prayer
    Before Amen: The Power of a Simple Prayer
    Before Amen: The Power of a Simple Prayer
    Ebook147 pages2 hours

    Before Amen: The Power of a Simple Prayer

    By Max Lucado

    5/5

    ()

    Switch to audiobook
    Read preview

    About this ebook

    We all pray. . . some. But wouldn’t we like to pray better? Stronger? With more fire, faith and fervency?

    We aren’t the first to struggle with prayer. The first followers of Jesus needed prayer guidance too. In fact, prayer is the only tutorial they ever requested. In Before Amen, New York Times bestselling author Max Lucado helps readers discover the very heart of biblical prayer, offering hope for doubters and confidence for both prayer beginners and experts.

    In this book, Max will help you:

    • Distill prayers in the Bible down to one pocket-sized prayer.
    • Remember that the Good Shepherd has authority over your life.
    • Learn that prayer is simply a heartfelt conversation between God and his child.

    Don’t be bogged down by crafting elegant words or apologizing for incoherent sentences. Climb into God’s lap and tell him everything on your heart. Today is the day to let the conversation begin.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherThomas Nelson
    Release dateOct 7, 2014
    ISBN9780529123909
    Author

    Max Lucado

    Since entering the ministry in 1978, Max Lucado has served churches in Miami, Florida; Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; and San Antonio, Texas. He currently serves as the teaching minister of Oak Hills Church in San Antonio. He is the recipient of the 2021 ECPA Pinnacle Award for his outstanding contribution to the publishing industry and society at large. He is America's bestselling inspirational author with more than 150 million products in print. Visit his website at MaxLucado.com Facebook.com/MaxLucado Instagram.com/MaxLucado Twitter.com/MaxLucado Youtube.com/MaxLucadoOfficial The Max Lucado Encouraging Word Podcast

    Read more from Max Lucado

    Related to Before Amen

    Related ebooks

    Christianity For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      A Prayer for February

      Jan 15, 2022

      A Prayer for February
      1 min read

    • Article

      My Pastor Saved Me From Suicide

      Nov 5, 2018

      Today’s contributor shares how the spiritual, healing ideas in the Bible and the Christian Science textbook freed her from despair and the temptation to commit suicide.

      3 min read

    • Article

      Letters To The Editor

      Aug 19, 2019

      Thank you for your wonderfully illustrated Biblical series of articles that you regularly publish. I find that I can’t concentrate like I used to, and love the short, precise, and factual articles. I have learnt so much from reading them. I was fasci

      7 min read

    • Article

      Sunday, January 27

      Dec 14, 2018

      YEARS AGO, I WAS AT one of the lowest points of my life, weighed down by family and personal problems. Prayer support from friends kept me going, but I felt so useless, unfit for ministry—like I had nothing to offer anyone. During the three-hour driv

      1 min read

    • Article

      CeCe Winans

      Dec 29, 2023

      CeCe Winans
      6 min read

    • Article

      Letters To The Editor

      Apr 22, 2019

      The Bible in a Nutshell is amazing! I have just received a ‘Bible in a Nutshell’ book as a gift from my mom. Wow, wow, wow – what a treat. I can’t put it down and have learned so much from it. What a treasure. Thank you for producing such a valuable

      5 min read

    • Article

      Letters To The EDITOR

      Jun 16, 2023

      Dear readers, we love to hear your thoughts on the stories that we publish, what is going on around the world, and what the Lord has placed on your heart! Email your letter through to [email protected] for a chance to be featured – please try to ke

      7 min read

    • Article

      Letters To The EDITOR

      Mar 18, 2022

      Dear readers, we love to hear your thoughts on the stories that we publish, what is going on around the world, and what the Lord has placed on your heart! Email your letter through to [email protected] for a chance to be featured – please try to ke

      7 min read

    • Article

      Letters To The EDITOR

      Jul 21, 2023

      D ear readers, we love to hear your thoughts on the stories that we publish, what is going on around the world, and what the Lord has placed on your heart! Email your letter through to [email protected] for a chance to be featured – please try to k

      6 min read

    • Article

      From Sharing Circles To House Churches, Young People Are Transforming Worship

      Jun 9, 2022

      It’s a familiar, even tired, story: Young people have turned away from religion, probably for good. They’re skeptical, jaded, plain uninterested. As congregations shrink, spiritual leaders wring their hands, wondering how to attract the next generati

      6 min read

    • Article

      Letters To The EDITOR

      Oct 28, 2022

      Dear readers, we love to hear your thoughts on the stories that we publish, what is going on around the world, and what the Lord has placed on your heart! Email your letter through to [email protected] for a chance to be featured – please try to ke

      7 min read

    • Article

      Saturday, October 26

      Aug 15, 2024

      AFTER FINISHING A BOOK ABOUT a woman’s true story, I sank my head into my pillow and sobbed. I recalled similar hurtful experiences like those she’d described. After calming down, I took her advice. I walked to the bathroom, looked in the mirror, and

      1 min read

    • Article

      Jesus Does Not Expect Much – He Expects EVERYTHING!

      Dec 29, 2023

      I thank the Lord for the wonderful, God-fearing parents who raised me in the ways of the Lord, but in my early 20s I had to come to the realisation that information about God is not the same as an intimate relationship with Him; that the Bible is mea

      3 min read

    • Article

      BOOKMARK THIS read…listen…stream

      Oct 18, 2022

      What Deep Listening Taught Early Christian Monks—and What it Can Teach Us Kim Haines-Eitzen • Princeton University Press Most of us likely think of deserts as barren with no redeeming value. Not so for Kim Haines-Eitzen, who finds a rich soundscape t

      5 min read

    • Article

      Letters To The Editor

      Nov 27, 2020

      I I believe b that we are living in the end times as we read about in all the books of the Gospel and listen to what Jesus had said. He warned of pestilences and famines. I believe that Covid-19 is one of the pestilences, as well as all the locusts t

      7 min read

    • Article

      Josh & Tara McCauley On A REDEMPTIVE Mission

      Sep 4, 2020

      Whilst his friends were out playing cops and robbers, a young Joshua would sit in the front row of church listening to the sermons of his dad (Rhema Church founder, Pastor Ray McCauley) blissfully unaware that one day he too would be standing behind

      10 min read

    • Article

      June

      Apr 16, 2022

      June
      32 min read

    • Article

      Letters To The Editor

      Jun 15, 2020

      A lot of people are asking why the world is the way it is. What’s going on? What on earth is God doing? Most of these people have never considered God before, but are questioning now that there is this terrible international crisis that is killing th

      7 min read

    • Article

      Letters To The EDITOR

      Oct 25, 2024

      D ear readers, we love to hear your thoughts on the stories that we publish, what is going on around the world, and what the Lord has placed on your heart! Email your letter through to [email protected] for a chance to be featured – please try to k

      5 min read

    • Article

      Friday, November 15

      Oct 15, 2019

      THE SUBJECT LINE OF THE email grabbed my attention. “How do we pray about our chronic illness?” A reader had reached out to me for guidance. I know how to pray when there is a short-term need, and Jesus either provides the answer, guides in a tangibl

      1 min read

    • Article

      Tools for Living

      Feb 28, 2019

      Tools for Living
      5 min read

    • Article

      Tuesday, March 10

      Feb 14, 2020

      I LEAD THE PRAISE TEAM at my church. We have a group text for sending practice schedules and stuff like that. Last Sunday, one of our members wrote, “I won’t make it to the service today. I just don’t feel like singing. I may not come back to church

      1 min read

    • Article

      Renew Your Mind

      Aug 26, 2022

      Many years ago I met a missionary in Hong Kong. He had a razor-sharp mind and a tender heart. I immediately knew I wanted to learn from him. His home was filled with books. While we were talking, he walked over to a bookcase, pulled out a thin paperb

      3 min read

    • Article

      Letters To The EDITOR

      Sep 23, 2022

      D ear readers, we love to hear your thoughts on the stories that we publish, what is going on around the world, and what the Lord has placed on your heart! Email your letter through to [email protected] for a chance to be featured – please try to k

      7 min read

    • Article

      Letters To The EDITOR

      Dec 29, 2023

      D ear readers, we love to hear your thoughts on the stories that we publish, what is going on around the world, and what the Lord has placed on your heart! Email your letter through to [email protected] for a chance to be featured – please try to k

      7 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for Before Amen

    5/5

    4 ratings0 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

      Book preview

      Before Amen - Max Lucado

      Acknowledgments

      My longtime editors, Liz Heaney and Karen Hill. You are Michelangelo on a manuscript. You keep chiseling until something emerges that is worth seeing. Thank you for pounding away.

      The publishing team of David Moberg, Paula Major, Liz Johnson, LeeEric Fesko, Greg and Susan Ligon, Jana Muntsinger, and Pamela McClure. You are ever energetic, accessible, creative, and passionate.

      Steve and Cheryl Green. You captain countless projects and comfort dozens of people. You solve problems like superheroes. I don’t know what I did to deserve friends like you, but I would do it again.

      Carol Bartley, copy editor. We all feel better knowing this: Carol will make sure it is done correctly. So grateful for your diligence.

      Randy and Rozanne Frazee. Steady, sturdy, and strong. What an honor to work with you.

      The Oak Hills Church. After a quarter of a century, we are still growing together.

      Special appreciation to Tina Chisholm, Margaret Mechinus, Janie Padilla, and Ashley Rosales. You serve quietly and graciously, and you deserve far more applause than you receive. Thank you.

      David Drury. Ever available to disentangle knots and thoughts and to offer advice.

      David Treat. Always prayerful, always praying.

      My daughters and son-in-law: Andrea, Sara, Jenna, Brett. When I look at you, I know the meaning of blessing.

      And Denalyn, my dear wife. My favorite answered prayer? Lord, let her say yes. He did. You placed the ring on your finger and took your place in my heart . . . forever.

      one

      The Pocket Prayer

      Hello, my name is Max. I’m a recovering prayer wimp. I doze off when I pray. My thoughts zig, then zag, then zig again. Distractions swarm like gnats on a summer night. If attention deficit disorder applies to prayer, I am afflicted. When I pray, I think of a thousand things I need to do. I forget the one thing I set out to do: pray.

      Some people excel in prayer. They inhale heaven and exhale God. They are the SEAL Team Six of intercession. They would rather pray than sleep. Why is it that I sleep when I pray? They belong to the PGA: Prayer Giants Association. I am a card-carrying member of the PWA: Prayer Wimps Anonymous.

      Can you relate? It’s not that we don’t pray at all. We all pray some.

      On tearstained pillows we pray.

      In grand liturgies we pray.

      At the sight of geese in flight, we pray.

      Quoting ancient devotions, we pray.

      This week more of us will pray than will exercise, go to work, or have sex.¹ Surveys indicate that one in five unbelievers prays daily.² Just in case?

      We pray to stay sober, centered, or solvent. We pray when the lump is deemed malignant. When the money runs out before the month does. When the unborn baby hasn’t kicked in a while. We all pray . . . some.

      But wouldn’t we all like to pray . . .

      More?

      Better?

      Deeper?

      Stronger?

      With more fire, faith, or fervency?

      Yet we have kids to feed, bills to pay, deadlines to meet. The calendar pounces on our good intentions like a tiger on a rabbit. We want to pray, but when?

      We want to pray, but why? We might as well admit it. Prayer is odd, peculiar. Speaking into space. Lifting words into the sky. We can’t even get the cable company to answer us, yet God will? The doctor is too busy, but God isn’t? We have our doubts about prayer.

      And we have our checkered history with prayer: unmet expectations, unanswered requests. We can barely genuflect for the scar tissue on our knees. God, to some, is the ultimate heartbreaker. Why keep tossing the coins of our longings into a silent pool? He jilted me once . . . but not twice.

      Oh, the peculiar puzzle of prayer.

      We aren’t the first to struggle. The sign-up sheet for Prayer 101 contains some familiar names: the apostles John, James, Andrew, and Peter. When one of Jesus’ disciples requested, Lord, teach us to pray (Luke 11:1 NIV), none of the others objected. No one walked away saying, Hey, I have prayer figured out. The first followers of Jesus needed prayer

      Enjoying the preview?
      Page 1 of 1