Ephesians 6v18 (NCV)
'Pray in the Spirit at all times with all kinds of prayer, asking for everything you need. To do this you must always be ready and never give up. Always pray for all God's people.'
Examen comes from the tradition developed by a guy called St. Ignatius of Loyola, who basically was very practical in prayer and taught that there were two keys to being spiritually healthy. Firstly, look for God in everything; and secondly, work at becoming freer to do God's will. He suggested that people use the examen model of prayer on a daily basis to help with hearing Gid and discerning His will.
It has five steps in total, and though it suggests having 15 minutes to complete, I quickly realised that that time has to be really flexible in order to not limit God!
- realise your in the presence of God
- express thanks for the past 24 hours
- ask the Holy Spirit for help
- review the past 24 hours - especially reflecting on where God's presence might have been felt, any habits or life patterns both positive and negative etc
- reconcile and resolve - both with God and possibly with other people
Pete Greig puts it really concisly when he writes
'Examen involves a deliberate commitment to recollect events in the presence of God - the opposite of Eastern meditation, which is about emptying the mind ... Examen asks people to look at the last 24 hours and take three steps:
- express gratitude
- reflect on how God's presence might have been tangible in that time
- confess failure ...'
Good practice to get into. Really gonna try this approach more often. I especially like that before I reviewed the last 24 hours, with all the negative and positive things that had gone on, I'd already asked for the Spirit's help and thanked God for all the good things. I guess sometimes we make our prayers more like shopping lists of all the things we want, or a list of moans and groans, or even just tell Him all the stuff we want Him to deal with, that we forget first and foremost to thank Him and ask Him for His help ... or at least I know I'm guilty of that. Praising God and thanking Him first puts you in a whole different frame of mind when you come to God with all the other stuff - almost like a whole new perspective. And it's so much easier to hear from God in that place than a negitive one.
'In the end the prayer of examen is about noticing: noticing the good gifts God gives us, noticing the presence of God in our lives, and noticing the ways we fail God. When we notice, we become more concious, when we become more concious we grow.'
Richard Peace - Meditive Prayer
Father, thank You for today and all You've taught me. Thank You for all the good things You've given me. Help me to become more concious of You. To see You in everything around me. To really search for You. Open my eyes Jesus. And then with that new awareness, help me to grow. Please continue to grow me, change me and shape me into who You want me to be, and who You made me to be.
'And so, dear brothers and sisters, we can boldly enter heavens Most Holy Place because of the blood of Jesus. This is the new, life-giving way that Christ opened up for us through the sacred curtain, by means of His death for us. And since we have a great High Priest who rules over God's people, let us go right into the presence of God, with true hearts fully trusting Him. For our evil consciences have been sprinkled with Christ's blood to make us clean, and our bodies have been washed with pure water. Without wavering, let us hold tightly to the hope we have, for God can be trusted to keep His promise.'
Hebrews 10v19-23 (NLT)
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