Discover Your Prayer Personality with Janet McHenry

What's your Prayer Personality? Janet McHenry unpacks incredible biblical insights and inspiration from the different prayer personalities of Bible characters.

Some say you should have a prayer closet and go there every day for an hour to pray. Some say you should write all your prayers out in a journal. And some say you should keep an organized notebook for all prayer requests others give you.

But none of this feels like you. 

Perhaps it's time to step away from the shoulds and discover a praying lifestyle that syncs with your God-given personality.

In Praying Personalities Janet McHenry explores biblical praying styles, numerous personality assessments, learning styles, the spiritual differences of the generations, and spiritual gifts to help you find a praying lifestyle that makes sense for you and the life you lead. 

Prayer personality survey:
Janet's Prayer School
Janet's Books

Bio:

Janet McHenry is a national speaker and the author of 27 books, including the bestselling PrayerWalk (WaterBrook) and The Complete Guide to the Prayers of Jesus (Bethany House). She directs the prayer ministries at The Bridge Church in Reno and serves on the California leadership team for the National Day of Prayer. The leader of the hundreds-strong Bible Girls and a long-time prayerwalker, Janet has helped others foster a hope-filled, purposeful lifestyle built on prayer and God's Word. Find out more and find all of Janet's resources at JanetMcHenry.com
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"This podcast is for the purpose of mentoring only and is not a replacement for therapy. We suggest you seek out the help of a trained biblical counselor for help with your specific situation.”

Transcript

Rhonda Stoppe [00:00:01]:
Hi, friends. I'm so excited that you are joining me for another episode of Old Ladies Know Stuff. Today's conversation is one that's near and dear to my heart, and I know you're going to love it too. So please stay tuned and listen up because we are going to be talking with Janet McHenry. I met Janet at the Mount Hermon, Writers Conference. That's the Vision Writers Conference, the 1st writers conference I've ever been to in person. I have so many books out and I've never ever been to a writers conference. I was, it was amazing.

Rhonda Stoppe [00:00:35]:
Janet is a national speaker. She's the author of 27 books. She directs the prayer ministries at the Bridge Church in Reno, and she serves on the California leadership team for the National Day of Prayer. The leader of 100 strong bible girls and prayer walker, Janet has helped others foster a hope filled purposeful lifestyle built on prayer and God's word for more than 2 decades. So please welcome with me today our friend Janet McHenry.

Janet McHenry [00:01:08]:
Thank you, Rhonda, for having me on. This is a pleasure.

Rhonda Stoppe [00:01:11]:
I'm so happy that we connected. And and we were just talking about how busy our our schedules are with our grandkids and trying to get everything in. And I'm so so glad that we were able to to get this time together. So we're gonna talk today about your new book and I cannot even tell you it's called Praying Personalities and I wanted the topics we can talk about your your natural prayer style, your prayer life, your personality, and just exploring the changes in prayer walking. There's just so much. I just want to jump right in and ask you some questions about when did prayer even become a passion for you?

Janet McHenry [00:01:51]:
Wow. That was about 25 years ago now, and I actually was suffering physically. I was huffing and puffing going up up and downstairs. Had had a serious weight gain at that time. I needed painkillers to get to sleep at night because my hips were screaming at me. And the worst moment was when I walked out my back door and I found myself in a crumpled heap because my knee had given way. So there on the concrete, I decided I needed to do something about my health, but I also knew that for some time, God had been calling me to, spend more time with him. So I decided I would get up a little bit earlier the next day.

Janet McHenry [00:02:34]:
And while I walked on the little streets of my community here in the in the Sierra Valley, I would pray. And, initially there was a lot of what I call minus in those prayers. You know, my marriage, my kids, my job as a high school English teacher. And that changed one day when I watched right here on our little main street, a young man hand over his blanketed baby girl to the daycare worker on the sidewalk. It wasn't even 6 o'clock in the morning yet. So it was still dark out. And that little girl said, bye daddy, I love you. And there was just something in the poignancy of that moment as I tried to put myself into the shoes of that young man who would be, you know, leaving his little girl in the hands of someone for probably 11, 12 hours that day as he commuted off to Reno, that God wanted me to pray less for the minus of my prayers, but more for the needs of others.

Janet McHenry [00:03:36]:
So I just began opening up my eyes, praying for the businesses in my community, the people in the homes, schools, as I walked around the schools in our town. And I began to get a sense that, you know, wherever I am, there's a need for prayer. And that's kinda where it all started, Rhonda.

Rhonda Stoppe [00:03:55]:
Amen. That's what a what a moment, right? To just see that baby being handed off and we all have have that heart for those little ones that Why do you think that prayer is just so important? And I honestly think that Christians will say, just so important? And I honestly think that Christians will say prayer is important, but they don't really believe it because they don't live it. Right?

Janet McHenry [00:04:22]:
Right. So it's, you know, it's having a conversation with the creator who made you. Your heavenly father, desires to deepen that relationship with you. Just think about if you were in a home, you know, with a spouse, with kids, but you never talk to one another. You know, the relationship is simply not going to deepen. And I think the one thing that we can often miss is that prayer is less about answers and it's more about access. We have access to the living God, the creator who made us, and he desires to deepen that relationship with him.

Rhonda Stoppe [00:04:57]:
Say that again.

Janet McHenry [00:04:58]:
Yeah. Prayer is about? Prayer is less about answers, but more about access.

Rhonda Stoppe [00:05:04]:
Amen. Amen. That is a great perspective, for your newest book, Praying Personalities, Finding Your Natural Prayer Style. How'd you come up with that idea, and what do you mean by natural praying style?

Janet McHenry [00:05:17]:
Well, I was speaking to a group of people one day, who'd asked me to share just various ideas about how they could incorporate more prayer into their into their, you know, daily lives. When I heard myself say, you know, perhaps it has something to do with our god given personality, and it was kind of a kind of a dead moment there for a while while I sort of blinked and just began to realize as and the others encouraged me to think about, you know, jumping into that topic that perhaps, each of us, you know, with, how God has made us can approach God differently. So I, I jumped into God's word with the question, is this true God? And began studying from Genesis again all the way through the, new testament as I do every year, looking for how people actually communicated with their heavenly father, all the way from, you know, Adam and Eve and Abraham and all the way through the prophets and into the new testament, the life of Jesus, and, looking also at Paul whom I call the on the run intercessor.

Rhonda Stoppe [00:06:30]:
Oh, I love that. And and that's what I love about your book. That's what I love about your perspective is you went to scripture. You unpacked the personalities of those in scripture that you could see, you know, they're different personalities. God calls each of us so dear. I mean, Peter compared to John. Right? Like, completely different.

Janet McHenry [00:06:55]:
Right. Right.

Rhonda Stoppe [00:06:58]:
That's I I just love that. That is where it's grounded because I feel like there's just so many books out there that say I think, I feel, you went right to the source, you went right to scripture.

Janet McHenry [00:07:09]:
Yes. And it was really fascinating to kind of just look at people's prayers and kind of try to begin to understand their tone and purpose behind them. You know, someone like Moses, we see 2 chapters in Exodus where he's arguing with God as to why he can't lead the Israelites out of captivity in Egypt into the promised land, or someone with Gideon who's negotiating with God. You know? Someone with Jacob who's wrestling with God, and Job who's questioning God, you know, all different kinds of people with a very human nature. And and yet God heard them. God listened. God answered. He helped them.

Rhonda Stoppe [00:07:49]:
Yeah. Yeah. And, honestly, that's what is so amazing is that God he wants each of us to be who we are and interact with him. Not those, oh, thou father, heavenly God of all ages and, you know, he wants us to to be ourselves because that's what he's looking for is that connection with our heart. Right?

Janet McHenry [00:08:10]:
Absolutely. And prayer can be very simple. If we look at the at the Lord's prayer as a model, that's the model Jesus gave us. It's 52 words. It's simple. It need not be complicated. It need not be formal sounding. He simply wants us to open our heart, and our prayer could be one word, help.

Rhonda Stoppe [00:08:29]:
Oh, yeah. Oh, for sure. Amen. Amen. Alright. So my next question for you is gonna be about your the three sections of the book. The first is the biblical praying style and we kinda shared a little bit, but can you share about the different praying styles that you found that stood out the most to you? The one maybe that resonated with your own personality?

Janet McHenry [00:08:50]:
I would say that probably of the the the biblical praying people, the someone I, resonated with was, actually was, David. You know, he was more emotive, more emotionally charged. You know, he wrote half the Psalms. You know, many of them are laments. We see that there. You know, he's crying out to God, trying to understand the whys. Or maybe even someone like Hannah who was, you know, in the first Samuel 1, she's she's crying to God, lamenting she hasn't been able to have a child. She desperately wants to have a child, and then God grants her request.

Janet McHenry [00:09:35]:
And the next chapter, we see praise and thanksgiving coming out of her mouth, you know, those kinds of praying people. And then, you know, but we can also, notice that some are just more systematic. They're more devotionally oriented, you know, like the fasting, praying people we know. Some are Ezra, Nehemiah, Esther. They, you know, they they were praying while they were fasting. And then, someone like, Daniel as well, who prayed 3 times a day. You know, he had to practice those discipline kinds of practices. And then, someone some might be more physical in orientation.

Janet McHenry [00:10:16]:
And even as I looked at the life of Joshua, for example, God spoke, Joshua obeyed. God spoke, Joshua obeyed. His response, his peripheral response was actually doing what God asked him to do. You know, we only see, you know, kinda one response to God in the book of Joshua from him as God asked him to do something, and he had a little complaint, but then he moved on. You know?

Rhonda Stoppe [00:10:43]:
Yeah. And honestly, I just love knowing those people in the bible were just real people in their generation.

Janet McHenry [00:10:49]:
Yes.

Rhonda Stoppe [00:10:49]:
That God called in their generation just like he calls us in ours. There's just something, inspiring, encouraging to not look at them as, like, God's MVPs and, you know, we're just, like, over here and it's like, nope. It's our turn. In this generation, it's our turn. And the value of prayer just cannot be overstated.

Janet McHenry [00:11:10]:
That's what I love about God's word. You know, to me, the humanity of the people and their stories in there only verifies again for me that that the Bible is real. It's true. Because if someone were making all that up, they would have per perfect characters, you know, just obeyed and never argue with God. But we can find freedom in God's word, you know, that we may not otherwise, you know, have we would give ourselves freedom to be as God has created us.

Rhonda Stoppe [00:11:41]:
Yes. One of the favorite prayers is when David says to God, who am I, oh God, and what is my family that you have brought me thus far? That one gets me every time because that's my prayer. I I shouldn't have a marriage that's lasted 42 years. I shouldn't have kids that want to come spend time with me or grandchildren that wanna be with us. I don't I come from a long line of broken marriages and really just a lot of chaos and drama in families. And when I when I ponder that the Lord saved us, that he saved my children and is now saving my grandchildren. It's it's just almost overwhelming to think of who am I that you have brought us thus far. So, yeah, I relate to David also.

Rhonda Stoppe [00:12:23]:
So what we're gonna do right now is we're gonna do 2 part. Let's before we sign off on this one, tell us where anyone that wants to can get a copy of Praying Personalities, And what's your website?

Janet McHenry [00:12:36]:
My website is janetmchenry.com, but you can also find me just about anywhere on social media. And, you can find Praying Personalities at any of the online sort of sources where you use Amazon, Barnes and Noble. Com, christianbook.com, but it probably is also in your local Christian bookstore.

Rhonda Stoppe [00:12:56]:
Yes. Great. Alright. Well, I appreciate that. We're gonna go leave, and then we'll have a part 2 of this because I am loving it, and I don't wanna cut it short.