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Friday Five

Getting Real About Prayer

Max Lucado on moving past false guilt and tired formulas.
Getting Real About Prayer

We spoke with Max Lucado about his most recent book, Before Amen: The Power of A Simple Prayer. We talked about how to teach on prayer and the reminder that God is always in control.

1. I think a lot of Christians going to churches instinctively know that we need to pray but always feel guilt like I don’t pray enough, I don’t pray right. How would you speak to that?

I encourage us to resist the urge to complicate prayer. I think those of us who have struggled with guilt about not praying enough or not praying right, it is because we are focusing on a form or formula. We love to create forms and formulas. Pray for a certain amount of minutes or use a certain type of prayer language or even prayer shawls or prayer beads. We create forms and formulas; well, sometimes these forms and formulas can be a guide, they can help us, yes, absolutely, but don’t beat yourself up. At its simplest core, prayer is simply a conversation with God. So, I’m wanting to remind ...

March
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