Welcome to Week 5 of Prayer Across America. If this is your first time joining us, you can read the introduction to understand the basics of what we are doing.

I am excited because as of this week, Mark has biked and I have driven the trailer 1100 miles, and we have traveled/prayed through Kentucky and are back in our home state of Indiana! We will actually be home on Friday for a two-week break before hitting the trail again on June 5 headed toward Denver. You can follow our progress and read stories about our trip at KickUpSomeDust.com.

Praying During Week 5

What’s on my heart this week to pray about? 

1. Our schools. Let’s pray for God-honoring agendas, curriculum, and staff. The hearts and minds of our children are what’s at stake. As parents and concerned citizens, we need to pray for our schools and pay attention. We need to call and let our voices be heard when an agenda is being pushed that is harmful to our kids.
2. Repentance. As a nation, we need to repent of pride and the sin that is dragging us down and away from God. Abortion is heavy on my heart.
3. Revival. As I drive each day, I pray for individual hearts because that’s where revival starts. We need it to sweep across America.
4. Delphi, Indiana. The murder of two best friends, 13-year-old Abby Williams and 14-year-old Liberty German back in February, remains unsolved. This tragedy occurred on a walking trail during the day. The girls went missing and their bodies were found the next day. Pray that the murderer will be found and brought to justice.
5. Your Prayers. Please add anything God lays on your own heart too!

As always, please add your prayers to the comment section below. Thanks so much for joining us as we pray across America!

Beautiful Kentucky wildflowers.

Lent is a time of self-examination and self-denial to prepare for Easter.

It’s natural to want to minimize these difficult days leading up to Resurrection Sunday, but then we would miss the whole purpose of Lent. We need to pause and sit with all the things that happened during Jesus’ last 40 days on earth. And we need to pause and sit with ourselves too. We need to see what should be adopted, eradicated, improved upon, and otherwise changed to make us ready for Easter.

Prayer of Examen

For the remainder of this week of Lent, we will focus on repentance and an ancient practice introduced by St. Ignatius called Examen. Examen is exactly what it sounds like. It is an in-depth prayer that helps us to examine ourselves. In the process we may be able to better discern God’s will, find God in all things, and enhance our understanding of God’s creation. This discipline should be done at the end of the day so that you can analyze how your day went. Don’t let the words discipline and analyze scare you. The process can be completed in as little as 10 minutes if you don’t have much time. Try to do it at least two evenings this week, more often if you are able.

Here is a link that will take you to the short Prayer of Examen tutorial. It’s a simple, yet effective process. If you want to, you can journal your answers to the questions, or you can complete them without pen and paper. Feel free to share any of your thoughts in the comment section below.

Pray on!

Today is Ash Wednesday, the start of a time of repentance and prayer on our journey to Easter Sunday. I’d like to repost a short devotion I wrote last year to set the tone for this 40-day season. Whether you will be attending services today or praying on your own, I trust that this will be a time for you to deepen your walk with Jesus.

Ash Wednesday

We all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God, but when we repent with all our heart God gives us a “divine do-over.” To pray specifically for a “divine do-over,” please click on the link.

Image courtesy of [David Castillo Dominici] / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Lent is a time of preparation for Easter. It is a reflective time, where we focus on getting our “spiritual houses” in order. This year of 2012, Lent begins on Ash Wednesday, February 22 and goes through Holy Saturday, April 7. Mary and I would like to invite you to join us each day with a scripture reading and a focus for that day. Just click on the tab Devotions and then Lenten Devotions for that day’s reading.

We will be exploring these themes during Lent this year:

• Self-denial
• Fasting
• Simplicity
• Spiritual growth
• Seeking God’s will
• Repentance

We are praying that all of our hearts will be changed as we embark on this journey together.

Won’t you join us?

Image: Janaka Dharmasena / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Have you ever wandered far from God? I know I have. God’s Word says that we all, like sheep, have gone astray. Thankfully, the Good Shepherd is ready to carry us home! All are welcome! To do the study “Black Sheep” just click on the link!