Weekly Practices
Weekly Practice 8/31/26
Make every effort to do or reflect upon this week’s practice with others.
Scripture
Psalm 139:23-24 MSG
Investigate my life, O God,
find out everything about me;
Cross-examine and test me,
get a clear picture of what I’m about;
See for yourself whether I’ve done anything wrong—
then guide me on the road to eternal life.
Practice
Examen
Through the month of September, we’ll be doing a big, annual examen to coincide with Trellis Vineyard’s one-year anniversary. Each week will be geared to one of our different values:
Know and love God
Know and love others
Know and surrender self
Partner with the Spirit
If you haven’t tried examen prayer yet, use this week to practice. It’s not hard, but it does require time to prayerfully look back. As you reflect on the past day (or year, as we’ll do in September) pay attention to how and when God has felt near or active in your life, and how and when you have participated with his love and work. Also, pay attention to times when God has felt distant, and when you have ignored or even resisted him. The point is to get better at noticing and responding to God’s presence, and noticing and resisting anything that pulls us away from him.
This week, practice examen as often as you can, ideally once a day. If it helps, use this framework:
1) Be still — Allow yourself to settle and to become aware of God’s presence.
How do I want to welcome God’s peace?
2) Give thanks — Ask God to bring to mind specific things from your day for which you can experience gratitude.
What am I grateful for today?
3) Reflect — Notice how you're coming to this time of prayer, what you experienced today and where you felt drawn throughout your day.
How do I come to this time of prayer?
Where did I feel drawn today?
What do I notice now about my day?
4) Pray — Talk with God about one or two things that came up in your reflection, and invite God to respond however God might choose.
What in my reflection seemed significant
What do I most want to talk to God about?
What might God most want to talk about?
5) Hope — Look ahead with God to the day’s remaining hours or the upcoming day.
Where will I need or desire God’s grace and loving presence?
6) Surrender — Offer yourself, the past hours and your upcoming hours to God, to use however God might desire.
What can I more fully offer to God?
How do I want to express this surrender?
Weekly Practice 8/24/26
Make every effort to do or reflect upon this week’s practice with others.
Suscipe
Take, Lord, and receive all my liberty,
my memory, my understanding,
and my entire will,
All I have and call my own.
You have given all to me.
To you, Lord, I return it.
Everything is yours; do with it what you will.
Give me only your love and your grace,
that is enough for me.
Scripture
James 5:1-20 NIV
Now listen, you rich people, weep and wail because of the misery that is coming on you. Your wealth has rotted, and moths have eaten your clothes. Your gold and silver are corroded. Their corrosion will testify against you and eat your flesh like fire. You have hoarded wealth in the last days. Look! The wages you failed to pay the workers who mowed your fields are crying out against you. The cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord Almighty. You have lived on earth in luxury and self-indulgence. You have fattened yourselves in the day of slaughter. You have condemned and murdered the innocent one, who was not opposing you.
Be patient, then, brothers and sisters, until the Lord’s coming. See how the farmer waits for the land to yield its valuable crop, patiently waiting for the autumn and spring rains. You too, be patient and stand firm, because the Lord’s coming is near. Don’t grumble against one another, brothers and sisters, or you will be judged. The Judge is standing at the door!
Brothers and sisters, as an example of patience in the face of suffering, take the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord. As you know, we count as blessed those who have persevered. You have heard of Job’s perseverance and have seen what the Lord finally brought about. The Lord is full of compassion and mercy.
Above all, my brothers and sisters, do not swear—not by heaven or by earth or by anything else. All you need to say is a simple “Yes” or “No.” Otherwise you will be condemned.
Is anyone among you in trouble? Let them pray. Is anyone happy? Let them sing songs of praise. Is anyone among you sick? Let them call the elders of the church to pray over them and anoint them with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well; the Lord will raise them up. If they have sinned, they will be forgiven. Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective.
Elijah was a human being, even as we are. He prayed earnestly that it would not rain, and it did not rain on the land for three and a half years. Again he prayed, and the heavens gave rain, and the earth produced its crops.
My brothers and sisters, if one of you should wander from the truth and someone should bring that person back, remember this: Whoever turns a sinner from the error of their way will save them from death and cover over a multitude of sins.
Practice
“Keep Leaning In”
We’ve said it before. We’ll say it again. We’re not in a hurry. Let’s continue to wait and wonder at what God might have for us as we close out the summer season. We know we are meant to live as people of the Kingdom. To partner with the Holy Spirit. Let’s do our best to keep our eyes and ears on him.
This week, ask God to show you what he desires for you in this next season. Also, keep leaning into the practices that you’re already doing:
Weekly Practice 8/17/26
Make every effort to do or reflect upon this week’s practice with others.
Suscipe
Take, Lord, and receive all my liberty,
my memory, my understanding,
and my entire will,
All I have and call my own.
You have given all to me.
To you, Lord, I return it.
Everything is yours; do with it what you will.
Give me only your love and your grace,
that is enough for me.
Scripture
James 4:1-17 NIV
What causes fights and quarrels among you? Don’t they come from your desires that battle within you? You desire but do not have, so you kill. You covet but you cannot get what you want, so you quarrel and fight. You do not have because you do not ask God. When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures.
You adulterous people, don’t you know that friendship with the world means enmity against God? Therefore, anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God. Or do you think Scripture says without reason that he jealously longs for the spirit he has caused to dwell in us? But he gives us more grace. That is why Scripture says:
“God opposes the proud
but shows favor to the humble.”
Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Come near to God and he will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. Grieve, mourn and wail. Change your laughter to mourning and your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up.
Brothers and sisters, do not slander one another. Anyone who speaks against a brother or sister or judges them speaks against the law and judges it. When you judge the law, you are not keeping it, but sitting in judgment on it. There is only one Lawgiver and Judge, the one who is able to save and destroy. But you—who are you to judge your neighbor?
Now listen, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money.” Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. Instead, you ought to say, “If it is the Lord’s will, we will live and do this or that.” As it is, you boast in your arrogant schemes. All such boasting is evil. If anyone, then, knows the good they ought to do and doesn’t do it, it is sin for them.
Practice
“Submit Yourself To God”
When James tells us to submit to God, he covers a lot of ground: How we treat one another. The ways we use our words. Our plans and desires. Doing what we know we ought to do (even when we don’t want to do it). Submission is scary. It means letting go of control. But God honors us when we surrender ourselves into his loving hands.
This week, start each day with a prayer of submission. It might be beneficial to offer the same prayer more than once, spaced out throughout your day. The go-to prayer for this is the one Jesus taught his disciples (Matthew 5:9-13 NASB):
Our Father, who is in heaven,
Hallowed be Your name.
Your kingdom come.
Your will be done,
On earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our debts,
as we also have forgiven our debtors.
And do not lead us into temptation,
but deliver us from evil.
The “Suscipe” works nicely, too. Or pray from your heart, offering to God the specific things you know are hard for you to surrender. Trust that God sees and honors your prayers.