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.

Jane VanOsdol

[display_podcast]

Resources

And The Bride Wore White: Seven Secrets to Sexual Purity (Celebration Edition)By Dannah Gresh

God in the AlleyBy Greg Paul

Love & Respect: The Love She Most Desires, the Respect He Desperately NeedsBy Dr. Emerson Eggerichs

Love is a DecisionBy Gary Smalley

Mean Girls: Facing Your Beauty Turned BeastBy Hayley DiMarco

The Case for Christ/The Case for Faith, 2 Volumes in 1

The New Evidence That Demands a VerdictBy Josh McDowell

The Power of Praying for Your Adult ChildrenBy Stormie Omartian

The Power of a Praying ParentBy Stormie Omartian

Wild at HeartBy John Eldredge

In this devotional book, Jane’s daughter, Amber, is a contributing author.

This Is Now: A Girl-to-Girl Devotional for Teens By Patti M. Hummel

Have you ever received a piece of news that just about knocked you off your feet?

It may be that everyone else around you could see it coming, but for whatever reason, you were blindsided by the revelation. That happened to me a few years ago. It was a challenging situation to handle, and I knew I needed to pray about it. Honestly, the situation was so overwhelming and foreign to me that I didn’t know where to begin.

Then I heard about the idea of prayer strategies.

While this is not a new concept, it was new to me. Basically the idea is to ask the Lord to reveal how you should pray about a difficult situation. I found the basis for this in Romans 8:26, 27.

Likewise the Spirit also helps in our weaknesses. For we do not know what we should pray for as we ought, but the Spirit Himself makes intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. Now He who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because He makes intercession for the saints according to the will of God.

I also like Psalm 119:169.

“Let my cry come before You, O Lord; give me understanding according to Your Word.”

So I set aside some time to pray and seek the insight of the Holy Spirit as to how I could attack this situation with prayer. I wanted specific guidelines. I grabbed my journal and then I waited.

While I was praying, the Holy Spirit began to give me phrases to pray, and many of them had to do with being set free. At the end of that time, I actually had a list of 12 things to pray about. I ran through my list and made sure that none of the ways I was going to pray conflicted with scripture. And they didn’t. Always make sure that your prayer strategy aligns with scripture, because the Holy Spirit will not ask you to pray for things that are contrary to scripture.

Specific Scripture

Since I could see the theme of freedom in these prayer requests, I then looked up some specific scriptures dealing with freedom that I could pray into this situation. I simply turned to my concordance, looked up the word freedom, and read through the scriptures. I asked the Holy Spirit to quicken my heart to the ones I should pray, and then chose the ones I felt led to.

You see, praying scripture is like throwing spiritual dynamite into the situation because God tells us in Hebrews 4:12 that His word is “alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.” It is the most powerful weapon in our arsenal.

I was so relieved to go from not knowing how to pray to having a very detailed prayer strategy in place. Each day I prayed using my strategy and trusted God with the results. This is important. Let go of any pressure. The results are up to God—your job is to pray.

“How long do I keep doing this?” you might be wondering.

Well, every situation is different. Often times we don’t get to see the results of our prayers. Some requests may need years of intercession; others only a short time. Basically, as long as God still puts the request on your heart or until you see victory in the area is how long you should keep praying. God will release you from the prayer burden when it is time.
I would encourage you that if you are feeling overwhelmed with a situation to ask God for a prayer strategy.You will go from feeling helpless to being powerfully equipped to pray your way through.
Drop me a comment or question and let me know if you use prayer strategies.
Pray on!

Jane VanOsdol

Listening to God has always been a practice that has intrigued me–and scared me. I am intrigued by the whole practice of contemplative prayer where I learn to listen to God’s voice while trying to silence my own voice and the other distractions around me. What scares me about it is the fear that if I do manage to quiet my own thoughts and requests that I won’t hear ANYTHING. What if God doesn’t respond to me at all? Sitting in silence seems kind of uncomfortable and … risky.

Well, the  secular world has embraced the whole practice of quietness through the use of meditation. Many studies show the benefit of this practice from lowered blood pressure to stress relief–and that’s because God designed it to work that way. But, there’s a big difference between secular meditation or the New Age way and the Christian practice of contemplative prayer. God didn’t ever mean for us to pursue just the practice of meditiation; He meant for us to pursue HIM while we meditate on His word. And that’s a BIG difference.

A few years ago I became familiar with the practice of Lectio Divina, which is a form of contemplative prayer. This was introduced during a sermon one Sunday. A few months after that, I took a spiritual disciplines class at church and learned more about it. Then a few weeks ago, I purchased a book I’ve been looking at for awhile called BE STILL by Amy and Judge Reinhold. It’s a beautiful, little book that teaches the whole practice of Lectio Divina. Lectio Divina, I learned, is a Latin phrase and means divine or sacred reading, and this practice has been a part of church life for centuries.

This little book takes you through 31 days of learning how to incorporate meditative prayer into your prayer life. Basically, on each day you meditate on a new portion of scripture, rereading the same passage four times, as you let the Holy Spirit quicken God’s word to your heart. Then you record what God is impressing upon you–how it applies to you.

I have to say that my early fears have been unfounded. Each day I am learning new things and becoming aware of areas in my life that need some work! As I am halfway through the book, I am learning to appreciate the still time of waiting on God and what He has to teach me, instead of always being the one doing the talking. I still pray through my requests, but I just make sure to have listening and meditating time on His word as well.

And with the Holy Spirit as a teacher, there will always be a unlimited supply of exciting things to learn!

Have you ever tried this practice? I’d love to hear your experience on this journey of prayer.

Pray on!

Be Still  By Judge Reinhold & Amy Reinhold

Be Still and Know That I Am God, DVD

Jane VanOsdol

Join Jane VanOsdol and Mary Kane as they welcome their guests Laura Hulce and Carol Jewell to discuss how to pray for families suffering through a job loss. Carol and Laura discuss the hardships that families go through as they grapple with this challenge and offer practical suggestions on how to pray for and support these families.

Mary Kane

[display_podcast]

Jane VanOsdol

The Lord of Hosts or Yahweh Sabaoth. What battles do you need the Lord to fight for you? At times, life can feel overwhelming. We may be going about what seems to be an ordinary day when WHAM! we get sidelined by a person, event, accident or situation we never saw coming. Or, it may be that we are in the middle of an ongoing battle with no end in sight.

Have you even been panicked or exhausted or ready to surrender? “How am I ever going to make it through this?” may be the thought that keeps running through your mind. Well, I found myself there in mid-June. One night at 10:10 p.m. as I was just getting into bed, my phone rang. I picked it up and my son’s girlfriend, obviously distraught, was trying to tell me something. I pieced together the following words: “Jesse,” “fire” and “burned.” Horrified, I realized she was telling me that my son had been burned at a bonfire, and they had called an ambulance.

I don’t know that I can even describe my feelings at that moment. I was so upset I had to force myself to try to think about what to do. My husband immediately took off to the friend’s house while I called my daughter and waited on her to drive home so that we could go together to the hospital.

About 15 minutes later, I heard the wail of sirens rush past my house, and a wave of nausea and grief hit me as I realized my son was in there, and I had no idea what shape he was in, even if he would live or die. Amber and I arrived at the hospital an hour later, and my husband prepared us for what we would see when we went back to be with Jesse. The sight of a person who has been burned in a fire is terrible, and I prayed for strength to be strong for him.

What battle are you facing right now that you need the Lord’s strength for? You may be outmanned, outgunned and overwhelmed, but you need to remember that the Lord of Hosts, the God of the armies of Israel (the words that David used against Goliath in 1 Samuel 17:45) is leading your battle when you call on Him. Our strength and skills may be insufficient to meet the situation or person facing us, but the situation or person is NOT bigger than God.

For the next week that Jesse was in the hospital, I relied on God’s strength to carry me through many heartrending days of painful treatments. I didn’t have the physical or emotional reserves I felt I needed, but God did, and He did not fail me.

I encourage you to call on God to lead you into your battle, whatever it may be. May your prayer be what David’s was as he charged onto the battlefield, “ You come to me with a sword and with a spear and with a javelin, but I come to you in the name of the LORD of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied” (1 Samuel 17:45). Pray on!

Update on June 29, 2010

Jesse had his outpatient appointment yesterday at the Riley Clinic, and we received more good news. They took off all the wraps and the burns are healed and the new skin is in! Now he just has to wear elastic wraps to support and protect the new skin. He has also been cleared to leave for Orlando and start school on his original date of July 15. They are setting up an appointment for him in Orlando in about 6 weeks with a burn clinic there. We are all so thankful. Praise God for this wonderful news and for all your prayers for him!

After the clinic visit, we went back up to the burn ward so that he could visit with his nurses who took care of him and give them the good news. That was a happy, emotional time for us. During the treatments there, the treatment that was the hardest was the debriding baths to clean off the burned skin. That was one of the things you all prayed about. During one of these sessions last week,  I was praying for some words of hope to give him to endure them when I looked up at the walls. On the walls were the handprints and names of all the children before him who had been through this same procedure. That day I said to him, “Jesse, look up at the names and the handprints. Look at how tiny some of these little hands are. They survived this, and you can too.” He looked up at them and whispered, “God bless every one of them.”

Jesse revisting the debriding room.

Well, yesterday Jesse added his handprint to the wall. I’ll let these pictures tell the story themselves.

Update on June 23, 2010

JESSE IS HOME!! Jesse had a miraculous turnaround last night, was walking today and was released from the hospital to outpatient care. We are all so happy to have him back. Thanks to all for your prayers. You have all played a major part in his quick healing. He is stunned by all the people around the country/world who were praying for him. I will have him leave an update once he gets a little time to recuperate. Praise God!

Jesse happy to be home with Amber!

Update on June 22, 2010

Jesse’s burns are healing. He is wrapped in a special wrap, which slowly releases silver on his burns. Silver is a natural antibiotic. These wraps can be left on for a week at a time, so he does not have to do the daily painful washes. He is working on walking again. New “skin buds” are forming on his legs and the nerves are all close to the surface, making walking very painful. As soon as he can walk, he will be allowed to go home.

Thanks for all your prayers! Jesse is so grateful to everyone.

Jesse VanOsdol

Jane’s 18-year-old son Jesse was burned in a fire on Wednesday evening. He has second and third degree burns on 15% of his body–both legs below the knees, his left arm and a small spot on his back.

Please pray against any infection, that swelling will go down, that he won’t need skin graft surgery and for strength during daily bandage changes. Right now he is unable to walk do the swelling and pain. Thank you so much!

“We went through fire and through water; But You brought us out to rich fulfillment” (Psalm 66:12).

Jesse VanOsdol