Forever Beloved

Faith, Love & Truth

Before Amen {Book Review}


Before Amen
The Power of a Simple Prayer
by Max Lucado

About the book:

We all pray . . . some. 

We pray to stay sober, centered, or solvent. When the lump is deemed malignant. When the money runs out before the month does. When the marriage is falling apart. We pray. 

But wouldn’t we like to pray more? Better? Stronger? With more fire, faith, and 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. And what about our checkered history with prayer? Uncertain words. Unmet expectations. Unanswered requests. 

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. 

And Jesus gave them a prayer. Not a lecture on prayer. Not the doctrine of prayer. He gave them a quotable, repeatable, portable prayer. Couldn’t we use the same? 

In Before Amen best-selling author Max Lucado joins readers on a journey to the very heart of biblical prayer, offering hope for doubts and confidence even for prayer wimps. Distilling prayers in the Bible down to one pocket-sized prayer, Max reminds readers that prayer is not a privilege for the pious nor the art of a chosen few. Prayer is simply a heartfelt conversation between God and his child. Let the conversation begin.

Who in the world has a problem praying? Certainly not anyone I’ve met…Our Pastor doesn’t, my Mama never did, no one ever did on the Waltons and even my littles don’t…so why did I? A question I’d asked myself a million times inside my head. For some reason I’ve always felt guilty asking for things for myself during prayer. I would gladly pray for everyone else but when it came to me, I just couldn’t do it.

Have you ever had a praying problem like I did? Do you wish you had a deeper prayer life? Are you new to prayer or wish you felt you were better at it? Do you want a deeper connection to God through your prayers? I know y’all, me too! Then this is the book for you! This is a great book to help you build a deeper prayer life. If prayer is something you struggle with (and this is an area I think we all can grow in), this is a great book to work through.

I love that this book is easy to understand, but complex in meaning. I’m not a fan of needing a dictionary beside me to read a book. This book is understandable, straight away. Max admits to being a prayer wimp, which I totally understand. I think there’s a little wimp in all of us, but thankfully we can learn to pray with greater confidence and boldness…this book will show you how!

Special THANK YOU to LitFuse for providing me with a review copy. My review is my own personal opinion.








Be sure to enter the Before Amen iPad Mini giveaway. AND if you pre-order a copy of Before Amen by 9/29, you’ll receive a FREE ebook copy of Max’s best-selling Second Chances: More Stories of Grace.

beforeamen-400-click

One grand prize winner will receive:
An iPad Mini
Before Amen by Max Lucado

Enter today by clicking the icon below. But hurry, the giveaway ends on September 29th. Winner will be announced September 30th on the Litfuse blog.

 
Don’t miss a moment of the fun; enter today and be sure to visit the Litfuse blog on the 30th to see if you won! (Or better yet, subscribe to their blog and have the winner announcement delivered to your inbox!)

Meal Planning Monday

Monday – No peek beef tips, mashed potatoes, corn and homemade bread

Tuesday – Tater tot casserole

Wednesday – Tacos, quick and easy…plus its the littles fav meal

Thursday – Buffalo chicken lasagna and 7up biscuits

Friday – Truck pulls! So that means amazing fair food.

Saturday – Class Reunion

Sunday – Breakfast for dinner…pancakes and sausage

Where Were You?

It’s funny how thinking back to that day you know EXACTLY where you were, what you were doing, what song was playing on the radio and what the weather was like. I was at work sitting at my desk when a woman came in and said “a plane just hit the world trade center”. At first we all thought it was just a stray plane that wrecked into it. It didn’t take us long to learn differently. Soon after we heard of a second plane going into the other building. We all rushed to the only office in the building with a TV. I stood in that office, crammed full of people shoulder to shoulder, and watched as the towers fell. The room was completely silent as people tried to wrap their minds around what was really happening. We then heard of the third plane and we were told they were closing the building. I worked for a state agency so they erred on the side of caution and closed the building.

My first thought, once I realized we were under attack, was I wanted my babies in my arms. I wanted them with me so I could protect them. I wanted to hug and kiss them and keep them safe. I wanted to be surrounded by my family and have my husband’s safe arms around me. I left work and went straight to pick my kids up from daycare. I took them home and spent the rest of the day snuggling and cuddling.

My son remembers this day differently, as one of my “not so stellar” mama moments. I was in a hurry that morning and was running late for work. I had a toddler and a baby, mornings weren’t my friend most days. I was rushing and shushed them in the sitters door and left, forgetting to kiss them goodbye. I know, the thought of that now makes my eyes well with tears. The sitter had the news on, as everyone in the nation did, and my son didn’t really understand what was going on. He just knew it was something bad. He spent the morning crying because his Mama didn’t kiss him. Isn’t it horrible that he still, to this day, remembers that clear as a bell? Sigh. What that did do was make me slow down and take that extra 10 seconds to kiss my littles goodbye, even if it meant being late for work. Actually, I still to this day kiss my kids before bed every night and before they go to school in the morning.

I was never more proud to be an American than I was that day. That evening we got out our American flag and hung it on our front porch. Basically every home or business you drove past had either a flag hanging or a sign showing their support for America.

That day we bonded as a nation. That day we knew, as a nation, that we needed God, we needed prayer and we needed hope. But oh, how quick we are to forget. Today, remember that day. Remember how quick we were to fall to our knees and cry out to God. And thank Him, for everything.

Ps…And kiss your littles. Always.