Prayer of Examen

As 2011 has kicked off, I’ve been evaluating my life and what I want to do for this year. I’d already been thinking about this for a few days when I was in church on January 2. My pastor Dave Rodriguez introduced a type of praying that was perfect for the mindset I was in. It’s called the Prayer of Examen. Richard Foster has a chapter on this type of prayer in his book Prayer: Finding the Heart’s True Home.

Basically, the Prayer of Examen is an inward spiritual practice, where we analyze what is going on inside of ourselves. It has two components:

1. The first is where we examine how God was working in or through us throughout our day and how we responded to Him, and

2. We examine our conscience to see where we need to be cleansed, purified and healed. See Psalm 26:2,3.

An important thing to remember, however, is to do this with God. Prayerfully ask the Holy Spirit to reveal things to you. God can help us to see the truth, but also He will do it in a loving way.

So, as I was in church, Pastor Rod suggested we all go through the Prayer of Examen in the context of looking over the past year of 2010. Here are the questions he suggested we answer.

1. Looking over the past year, for what am I most grateful or thankful?

2. When or where in the past year were you cooperating most fully with God’s action in your life?

3. When were you resisting?

4. Beginning today, how do you want to live your life differently?

Take some time to prayerfully answer these questions. What do you want 2011 to look like for you?

While my church did this in the context of one year, many people pray the Prayer of Examen on a daily basis. You can ask yourself these same questions using the last 24 hours as your context. Here are some ways it may help you to do this on a daily basis, or at least semi-regularly.

Perhaps you take a walk every evening; you could answer these questions as you’re walking. Or maybe you like to journal, and you can journal your answers. Perhaps you want to mentally run through the prayer as you’re lying in bed at night.

Whatever way you decide, incorporating the Prayer of Examen into your life may help you to grow spiritually as you invite the Lord to help you analyze your heart.

Pray on!

Resource

62846: Prayer: Finding the Heart&quot;s True Home

Prayer: Finding the Heart’s True Home

By Richard Foster / HarperOne

The Prayer

This is an amazing video by seven-year-old gospel singer Rhema Marvanne. God has blessed her with a voice to praise Him. I hope you enjoy it!

Are We Expecting Too Little From Our Prayers?

Lately it seems that I am being challenged on my expectations for my prayers. To be more specific, I am praying, but am I really expecting God to work through my prayers? I’ve heard several teachings on authority in prayer, a theme that has been repeating itself at church, in prayer meeting and in my devotional readings. I know from past experience that when I keep hearing the same theme repeatedly that I need to pay attention. God is trying to teach me something!

What I am hearing lately is that Jesus had to go back to heaven to be with His Father for a very important reason: so that the Holy Spirit could come and fill each believer on earth. Jesus was only one person and while on earth was limited to the number of people He could reach. But once He returned to heaven, God put into the action the next phase of His plan–and that is filling and equipping believers (that’s you and me) with His Holy Spirit. God is using us to spread His message to the ends of the earth. Let’s consider some of Jesus’ amazing words to us before He left this earth.

“Behold, I give you the authority to trample on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall by any means hurt you.” Luke 10:19

“Most assuredly, I say to you, he who believes in me, the works that I do he will do also; and greater works than these he will do, because I go to my Father. And whatever you ask in My name, that I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask anything in My name, I will do it.” John 14: 12-14

“Nevertheless I tell you the truth. It is to your advantage that I go away; for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you; but if I depart, I will send Him to you.”
John 16:7

Those are powerful words. Have your ever let them sink in to your mind? Jesus really said that we were to do even greater works than what He did. Do we take Him at His word on this? In other words, when I am praying, do I believe that God will work through my prayers?

So many things to consider here …. In the next blog post, I want to explore this topic further. Until then …

Pray on!

Praying for Teenagers Part 2

Join Jane VanOsdol and Mary Kane as they finish discussing how to pray for your teenagers. The teen years are exciting and stressful times. Today Jane and Mary finish discussing how to pray for all the important issues in your teens’ lives. This is the second part of a two-part series.

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Praying for God’s Agenda

I’m reading a good book by Henry and Norman Blackaby called Experiencing Prayer with Jesus: The Power of His Presence and Example. I came across this quote that really made me stop and think .

Prayer is not for the purpose of getting God to help us … but for getting us in line with what God is about to do. Prayer is God’s invitation to enter His throne room so He can lay His agenda over our hearts.

I haven’t ever looked at prayer in quite this way before. It really is a training and molding ground for our hearts. It’s more about God preparing us so that He can start using us by working through us. I began to think about how much of my time I spend on asking God for things versus how much time I am in prayer for the Spirit to use me. Now I still think we need to bring our requests before God, but I also see how we need to be quiet so that the Spirit can start to do the work in our lives that God wants to do.

What do you think? What does this look like for your prayer time? Does it change anything?

Feel free to share your thoughts by leaving a comment and pray on!

Praying for Your Teens Part 1

Mary Kane

Join Mary Kane and Jane VanOsdol as they discuss the popular topic of Praying for Your Teens.

In this two-part podcast, Mary and Jane discuss the issues that affect teens’ lives–and their parents’. They’ll cover the topics of spiritual growth, physical safety, health, relationships, jobs, education and their futures.

The teen years are critical years for kids. Decisions they make now can affect them for better or for worse for years to come. Don’t send your kids out “unprayed”! Learn how to pray for them as you traverse these years with them. Mary and Jane also feature several of their favorite resources that they’ve used through the teen years with their children.