5 Habits - Prayer #6
Welcome to Everyday Devotions. These daily Bible readings and Prayer Pathways are designed to help you go deeper with God each day in response to what you are hearing at the Everyday Church services and Life Group gatherings.
Saturday 18th January
In this week’s Everyday Devotions, we are learning several Prayer Pathways together – simple structures to help us marshal our thoughts and focus our prayers. The first three pathways that we have looked at this week were The Lord’s Prayer, the Moses Prayer and the Trinity Prayer. Today, we will look at the fourth and final pathway. We are going to teach you The Examen Prayer.
Bible Meditation
Psalm 5:3
3 In the morning, Lord, you hear my voice; in the morning I lay my requests before you and wait expectantly.
Psalm 55:17
17 Evening, morning and noon I cry out in distress, and he hears my voice.
Psalm 119:147-148
147 I rise before dawn and cry for help; I have put my hope in your word. 148 My eyes stay open through the watches of the night, that I may meditate on your promises.
Daniel 6:10
10 Now when Daniel learned that the decree had been published, he went home to his upstairs room where the windows opened toward Jerusalem. Three times a day he got down on his knees and prayed, giving thanks to his God, just as he had done before.
As these verses show us, the Jews in the Old Testament had a strong tradition of praying three times a day. They would pray first thing when they woke up in the morning. They would pray at lunchtime, as they took a break for food and for rest in the heat of the day. They would then pray in the evening before bed, as they looked back on a day lived with God and as they committed the next day into God’s hands.
The Examen Prayer was invented by Ignatius of Loyola in the sixteenth century as a way for Christians to pursue a similar lifestyle of checking in with God in prayer three times a day. We have modernised the words he used, but it’s still a very useful pathway to help marshal our thoughts and structure our prayers when we want to pursue frequent check-ins with God. We’d encourage you to try it too! Essentially, Ignatius encourages us to pursue 4Rs when we wake up in the morning, when we take a break for lunch and in the evening before we go to bed.
REJOICE Look back on the past few hours since you spent time in focused prayer to God. What has happened that is good and that you need to say thank you to God for? Make sure you check in with grateful rejoicing for what he has done for you.
REPENT Look back on the past few hours and say sorry to God for anything that you have done that you know was sinful or displeasing to him. Keep a short account with God when it comes to sinning. He is eager to forgive you.
RENOUNCE Look back on the past few hours and reflect on the ways in which you have seen a clash between the way God wants you to live and the way that the world around you is living. These are the battlefields on which your daily fight for holiness is being fought right now. Renounce wrong ways of thinking, declaring that you are siding with God and with his Word in each of those areas, no matter what price is to pay.
REBOOT Look forward to the next few hours before your next check-in of focused prayer to God. What challenges and opportunities lie ahead of you? What discouragements and failures are you likely to drag with you into those next few hours unless you leave them here with God? Deal with those things now and let God reboot your life for the next few hours. Go into them empty of baggage and full of expectation. Let God commission you to serve him joyfully for the next few hours until you return to check in through these 4Rs again.
Daniel 6:13
13 Then they said to the king, “Daniel, who is one of the exiles from Judah, pays no attention to you, Your Majesty, or to the decree you put in writing. He still prays three times a day.”
Don’t let anything distract you from pursuing this fourth prayer pathway by checking in with God in focused prayer when you wake up in the morning, when you take a break for lunch and in the evening before you go to bed.
Prayer Pathway
So let’s give it a go. Experiment today with this prayer pathway. In the morning, at lunchtime and in the evening, take some time out to enjoy The Examen Prayer.
REJOICE: What has happened that is good and that you need to say thank you to God for?
REPENT: Say sorry to God for anything you have done that you know was sinful or displeasing to him.
RENOUNCE: Reflect on the ways where you have seen a clash between how God wants you to live and how the world around you is living. Renounce those wrong ways of thinking. Declare that, no matter what the cost, you are siding with God and with his Word in each of these areas.
REBOOT: What challenges and opportunities lie ahead of you in the next few hours? What discouragements and failures are you likely to drag with you into those next few hours unless you leave them here with God?
We hope that you enjoyed using these 4Rs. Come back later and do them, developing the same habit as Daniel and the Jewish nation of coming back to God for simple prayer such as this three times a day.
REJOICE: What has happened that is good and that you need to say thank you to God for?
REPENT: Say sorry to God for anything you have done that you know was sinful or displeasing to him.
RENOUNCE: Reflect on the ways where you have seen a clash between how God wants you to live and how the world around you is living. Renounce those wrong ways of thinking. Declare that, no matter what the cost, you are siding with God and with his Word in each of these areas.
REBOOT: What challenges and opportunities lie ahead of you in the next few hours? What discouragements and failures are you likely to drag with you into those next few hours unless you leave them here with God?
We hope that you enjoyed using these 4Rs. Come back later and do them, developing the same habit as Daniel and the Jewish nation of coming back to God for simple prayer such as this three times a day.
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Connect: We’d really like your feedback on how these Everyday Devotions are helping you and how we might help you even better. Talk to us by emailing: devotions@everyday.org.uk
Continue: your connection with us by attending our Online Church Service
Connect: We’d really like your feedback on how these Everyday Devotions are helping you and how we might help you even better. Talk to us by emailing: devotions@everyday.org.uk
Continue: your connection with us by attending our Online Church Service