In this week’s message, we walked through a prayer called The Daily Examen that can be practiced as part of recognizing God’s presence in our lives.
1. Be Still – Become aware of the presence of God.
Repeat the phrase “Jesus Christ, Son of God, I am yours..” a few times, slowly, focusing on the words and phrases. These words can help us focus on God’s presence and help us commit ourselves to listening to God.
2. Give Thanks – Review past activities with thankfulness.
What have we been thankful for during the past 24 hours? It could be for the people in our lives, or lessons learned during a struggle, or the victories that we have experienced. Through being thankful, we are identifying the ways in which God has shown up and provided for us.
3. Reflect – Become aware of your emotions.
Ask, “How am I doing today?” Name the emotions we are feeling, or have felt over the past 24 hours. Then, give each one to the Lord. Invite Him into those emotions, and be open to what he might have to say to us about what we are feeling. Name our emotions and invite Jesus into those spaces.
4. Pray – Choose one feature of the day and pray about it.
Settle on one memory or emotion. Perhaps it is a single event, or maybe it’s a pattern of behavior that has come to mind as we have reviewed the past day. Whatever it is that has emerged, allow it to fuel our prayer. Don’t worry about the other things that we could think about right now; stay with the one thing that has come to mind and pray from those thoughts and emotions.
5. Hope – Look ahead with expectation.
Think about what might be coming our way in the day ahead. Think of important relationships, major (and minor) decisions to be made, skills to learn, habits to build, healing to seek, the things we want to accomplish. Tell God about these and ask him to give us what we need.
End by committing ourselves to trusting that God is with us and that he is good.