Have you ever wondered if you had sinned so deeply that you were beyond the grace of God? Please realize that God is not looking for  perfect records; He’s looking for humble hearts that long to follow Him. To do the parable study The Sinner, please click on the link.

photo Silhouette of a Man by Markuso

https://www.freedigitalphotos.net/images/search.php?search=silhouette

I was reading a Grace Livingston Hill book recently (old-fashioned fiction stories). In her book one of her characters is wondering about how prayer works. The character had recently come through a dangerous situation safely, and after a friend told her he had been praying for her, she was wondering if that friend’s prayers could have specifically worked to help keep her safe. This is what the character was thinking.

“Was prayer perhaps like the radio, just as sounds were stored up in the air, so perhaps prayers were hovering about on their way to and from God?”

What an interesting way this is of looking at prayer! I love the visual this put into my mind of millions of prayers floating around in the air on their way to the throne of God. Romans 8:26-28 tells us that the Holy Spirit intercedes for us, so we know that prayers are also directed to us from heaven. It’s a two-way street of prayers on a heavenly highway!

This quote on prayer from a fictional character really started me thinking about how God may use our prayers. I wonder if the prayers that are prayed on our behalf are at some point hovering around us in a hedge of protection. When we pray for our children or spouse, do those prayers envelop them as they go about their days? As we pray for other countries, do those prayers gather forces with the prayers others have prayed to “cushion” that country?

What must the heavenly airwaves look like with all the prayers of the saints?

I wish we could see it. What do you think?

Pray on!

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

Prayer: Finding the Heart’s True Home By Richard Foster / HarperOne

“And it happened, when Elizabeth heard the greeting of Mary, that the babe leaped in her womb; and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit. Then she spoke out with a loud voice and said, ‘Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb! But why is this granted to me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me? For indeed, as soon as the voice of your greeting sounded in my ears, the babe leaped in my womb for joy. Blessed is she who believed, for there will be a fulfillment of those things which were told her from the Lord.’” Luke 1:41-45 NKJV

Focus:

Let’s look today at Elizabeth’s place in preparing our hearts for Christmas. It was particularly hard on a woman to be barren in the Jewish culture. You see, the Jews considered children to be a sign of God’s favor on a couple and His displeasure if you could not have children. We know that God was not displeased with Zecharias and Elizabeth because  God tells us in Luke 1:6 that both Elizabeth and her husband Zacharias were righteous, walking in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord blameless. But Elizabeth’s contemporaries did not have the benefit of the scripture.

She probably suffered for years over their inability to have children. I wonder how many sideways glances or snide comments she had to endure.

Yet, God had a very special plan in mind for this couple. But it had to be the right timing. Elizabeth remained faithful through all those difficult years without knowing that she would bear a son who would prepare the hearts of the people for the Messiah. What an honor she had!

Let this encourage us when we feel that we are tired of waiting for what we are praying for. Keep lifting up that wayward child in prayer. Keep praying for that long awaited child. Keep asking the Lord for healing. Keep seeking God for a new job. What unanswered prayer have you lost hope for? Be open to God’s timing and how He wants to work in your life. Is there something bigger at stake God is trying to show you? Is He trying to change more than what you’re praying for? Maybe something at the very core of you? Let Him do His work in your life and remember that some prayers take a lifetime to birth! Some we may see right away, and others maybe not this side of heaven. But don’t give up!

Prayer: Dear Lord,

We pray for the perseverance to be faithful to You no matter what our circumstances may look like. Help us to remember that your timing preempts our timing. May we keep praying, keep believing, keep loving. Amen.

Pray on!

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!

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.

[display_podcast]