Before Amen – Introduction

“Before Amen” was the book about prayer written by Max Lucado. This book is one of my inspirations why I chose to join the Intercessory Ministry. This blog is the introduction of the five-part mini-series about this book.

Highlights:

1. Prayer is like a long stretch of road.
2. Prayer is simply a heartfelt conversation between God and His children. 

The Wedding Reception

Whenever the church is talking about prayer, there is one instance of my life that I remember.

That is the time when I attended the wedding of one of my friends. Before dinner, the Master of Ceremony called somebody to pray for the food. It was a well-crafted, very organized, very intense, almost 10-minute prayer for the food. 

Wow, I was thinking that time, if this person can pray like this for the food, how much more he can pray for other more serious stuff.

My Realization

From that time on, I realized I am a prayer wimp. I doze off when I pray. Distractions swarm my mind when I pray. When I pray, I think of a thousand things I need to do, and I end up forgetting something that I intend to do – pray. While I know some people excel in prayer, one of those people is my friend’s friend, who prayed for the food. They inhale heaven, and they exhale God. You can call them the seal team 7 of intercession. They would instead pray than sleep. I intend to sleep when I pray. They belong to the PGA (Prayer Giant Association), I am a member of PWA (Prayer Wimps Anonymous). Can you relate?

Of course, we all prayed to some extent. When somebody in our family experience life-threatening disease or when the money runs out before the salary. But wouldn’t we like to pray more, better, more profound? Wouldn’t we want to pray with more fire, faith, and fervency?

Just like a road

What is it about prayer that makes us feel this way?

One possible reason is the unmet expectations and unanswered prayer requests in the past. You took this lonely road of prayer, but it did not lead to your expected destination.

If you can relate to this, don’t worry, you are not the only one who struggles in this area. The sign-up sheets for Prayer 101 contain familiar names, including Apostle John, James, Bartolome, Andrew, and Peter. When one of Jesus’ disciples requested, “Teach us to pray,” nobody objected. No one walks away saying – I got this prayer thing figured out. The first followers of Jesus needed guidance on how to pray. Prayer is the only tutorial that they ever requested. They could have to ask instructions on many topics – how to multiply bread, how to still the storm, vacate the cemetery, but they never did. I wonder whether their interest has something to do with the jaw-dropping, eye-popping promise that Jesus attributed to prayer. He told them

“You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it.” John 14:14

Jesus never attached this promise to anything else – except prayer. Jesus responded to disciples’ requests by giving them a sample prayer. Not a lecture on the doctrine of prayer. But a quotable, repeatable prayer.

As we look on the Bible about prayer, we can distill them into one simple easy to memorize pocket-size prayer:

Father, you are good, I need help, so do they. Thank you. In Jesus’ name Amen.

As you go into the day, you can let this prayer punctuates everything that you do. You can begin your morning – Father, you are good, and as you commute to work – I need help. While you are queuing in the grocery store – so do they and as you look back in the day and remember everything God has done – Thank you.

Prayer is not a privilege for the elite of the art of the chosen few.

Prayer is simply a heartfelt conversation between God and His children. 

We speak. God listens. He speaks; we listen. God changes His people through such moments. Just like He is changing me. I can relate with Max when he says, “Yes, I am a prayer wimp. But a recovering prayer wimp.”

To be continued …