Elohim February 2015 | Page 13

Max Lucado Spotlight on... to follow. Likewise, in Before Amen, Max Lucado explores the very heart of Biblical prayer by offering distilled, hope-filled prayers that will help you turn your heart towards the One who longs to speak with you.` Prayer is a lifeline, a beacon of hope that we can cling to in life’s difficult moments... Lord, please protect my family...God, I need your help to make it through today...Jesus, thank you for your grace...It goes on and on. Prayer is the most necessary and most basic expression of our faith, yet we often struggle to do it. The daily duties of life crowd in, filling our days with activity and we don’t communicate with our heavenly Father. Thankfully, we aren’t the first followers of Jesus to struggle with prayer. The disciples did too. In response to their question, Jesus gives them, and us, a simple, beautiful example Do you find it hard to believe that the One who made everything keeps your name on His heart and on His lips? Did you realize that your name is written on the hand of God (Is. 49:16)? Perhaps you’ve never seen your name honored. And you can’t remember when you heard it spoken with kindness. In this book, Lucado offers the inspiration to believe that God has already bought the ticketwith your name on it.` As believers in Christ, we claim to understand grace. From Sunday school to adulthood we’ve been taught that we’re saved by grace. We know the Bible verses and the sinner’s prayer, but have we really taken hold of it? Or rather, has it taken hold of us? Grace isn’t a nice idea. It’s not a song lyric, or a warm, fuzzy feeling. It’s the radical life of Christ lived in you. Grace gives you the freedom to love the unlovable, and forgive the unforgivable, because you know how much you’re loved, and know how much you’ve been forgiven.` Page 13