Max Lucado - Discovering the Power of Prayer

Discovering the
Power of Prayer

4 Interactive Bible Studies
for Individuals or Small Groups

MAX LUCADO

Copyright 2007 by Max Lucado

Published by Thomas Nelson, Inc., P.O. Box 141000, Nashville, Tennessee, 37214.
Study Guide prepared by the Specialty Group of Thomas Nelson, Inc.
Excerpts from The Applause of Heaven, He Still Moves Stones, A Gentle Thunder, and
The Great House of God, published by W Publishing Group. Used by permission.

All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any meanselectronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, or any otherexcept for brief quotations in printed reviews, without the prior written permission of the publisher.

All Scripture quotations marked NCV are from The Holy Bible: New Century Version.
Copyright 1987, 1988, 1991 by W Publishing Group, a Division of Thomas Nelson, Inc.
Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations marked NIV are taken from The Holy Bible: New International Version (NIV).
Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984 by the International Bible Society.
Used by permission of Zondervan Publishing House. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations marked TLB are taken from The Living Bible, copyright 1971.
Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, Illinois 60189.
All rights reserved.

ISBN 978-1-59145-534-9
www.thomasnelson.com

Contents

HOW TO USE
THIS STUDY GUIDE

Congratulations! You are making Gods Word a priority. Thesemoments of reflection will change you forever. Here are a few suggestionsfor you to get the most out of your individual study.

:: 1::

As you begin each study, pray that God will speak to you through His Word.

:: 2 ::

Read the overview to each study, then listen to the audio segment, taking notes on the worksheet provided.

:: 3::

Following the audio segment, respond to the personal Bible study and reflection questions. These questions are designed to take you deeper into Gods Word and help you focus on God and on the theme of the study.

:: 4::

There are three types of questions used in the study. Observation questions focus on the basic facts: who, what, when, where, and how. Interpretation questions delve into the meaning of the passage. Application questions help you get practical: discovering the implications of the text for growing in Christ. These three keys will help you unlock the treasures of Scripture.

:: 5::

Write your answers to the questions in the spaces provided or in a personal journal. Writing brings clarity and deeper understanding of yourself and of Gods Word.

:: 6::

Keep a Bible dictionary handy. Use it to look up any unfamiliar words, names, or places.

:: 7::

Have fun! Studying Gods Word can bring tremendous rewards to your life. Allow the Holy Spirit to illuminate your mind to the amazing applications each study can have in your daily life.

INTRODUCTION
DISCOVERING THE
POWER OF PRAYER

When a believing person prays, great things happen.

JAMES 5 : 16 NCV

Imagine yourself in a dark room. Windows closed. Curtains drawn. Shutters shut. In the darkness its hard to believe theres daylight beyond the drapes. So you grope and try to feel your way across the floor. You take a step, disoriented and unsure where youre headed. Progress is slow and the journey painful. Stubbed toes, bruised shins, broken vases. Its hard to walk in a dark place.

Harder still to walk in a dark world. But many try. And, as a result, many are wounded in the effort: tripping over problems, bumping into one another in the shadows, ramming into walls.

But occasionally one of us makes a discovery. Reaching through the blackness, a hand finds curtains and a window latch. Hey, everybody! The walls have windows! The drapes are pulled back and the window opened. The sun floods into the room. What was dark is now bright. What was opaque is now clear. What was stale is now fresh.

With the light comes a peace, a power, a desire to move closer to the light, and a confidence to step forward. Our timid steps are replaced by a certainty to our walk. A certainty to move through the corridors of life, opening one window after another to illuminate. What a difference! And all it took was one small gesture of opening curtains and raising the window.

Prayer does the same thing for us. Prayer is the window that God has placed in the walls of our world. Leave it shut and the world is a cold, dark house. But throw back the curtains and see His light. Open the window and hear His voice. Open the window of prayer and invoke the presence of God in your world.

Thats what this study, Discovering the Power of Prayer, is all about.

More things are wrought
by prayer than this world dreams of.

ALFRED , LORD TENNYSON

LESSON ONE
THE LIFELONG
CHANCE OF A
LIFETIME

This is the confidence we have inapproaching God: that if we ask anythingaccording to his will, he hears us.

1 JOHN 5 : 14 NIV

Most of our prayer lives could use a tune-up. Some prayer lives lack consistency. Theyre either a desert or an oasis. Long arid, dry spells interrupted by brief plunges into the waters of communion....

Others of us need sincerity. Our prayers are a bit hollow, memorized and rigid. More liturgy than life. And though they are daily, they are dull.

Still others lack, well, honesty. We honestly wonder if prayer makes a difference. Why on earth would God in heaven want to talk to me? If God knows all, who am I to tell Him anything? If God controls all, who am I to do anything?

Our prayers may be awkward. Our attempts may be feeble. But since the power of prayer is in the One who hears it and not the one who says it, our prayers do make a difference.

I experienced a kindred truth many years ago. My daughters and I spent a Saturday desk-hunting. I needed a new one for the office, and wed promised Andrea and Sara desks for their rooms. Sara was especially enthused. When she comes home from school, guess what she does? She plays school! I never did that as a kid. I tried to forget the classroom activities, not rehearse them. My wife, Denalyn, assures me not to worry, that this is one of those attention-span differences between genders. So off to the furniture store we went.

When Denalyn buys furniture, she prefers one of two extremesso antique its fragile or so new its unpainted. This time we opted for the latter and entered a store of in-the-buff furniture.

Andrea and Sara succeeded quickly in making their selections, and I set out to do the same. Somewhere in the process Sara learned we werent taking the desks home that day, and this news disturbed her deeply. I explained that the piece had to be painted and they would deliver the desk in about four weeks. I might as well have said four millennia.

Her eyes filled with tears. But, Daddy, I wanted to take it home today.

Much to her credit, she didnt stomp her feet and demand her way. She did, however, set out on an urgent course to change her fathers mind. Every time I turned a corner she was waiting on me.