christian living on Examen

The examen makes us aware of moments that at first we might easily pass by as insignificant, moments that ultimately can give direction for our lives.

Self-examination is not morbid introspection or self-condemnation, but the honest, fearless confrontation of the self, and its abandonment to God in trust.

Repentance resulting from self-examination is a lifelong endeavor, occasionally surfacing in the public or private act of confession as an act of “courageous memory” in recalling one’s past.

Examine your heart often to see if it is such toward your neighbor as you would like his to be toward you were you in his place. This is the touchstone of true reason.

If we examine our thoughts, we shall find them always occupied with the past and the future.

Trials come to prove and improve us.

To confess, then, is to praise and glorify God; it is an exercise in self-knowledge and true humility in the atmosphere of grace and reconciliation.

Whoever survives a test, whatever it may be, must tell the story. That is his duty.

Every temptation is a kind of test, but not every test is a temptation. Tests and temptations have different purposes, and they come from different places. Tests are designed to show what someone can ...

Most people fail to realize that money is both a test and trust from God.

It is when we notice the dirt that God is most present in us; it is the very sign of His presence.

Several times during the day, but especially in the morning and evening, ask yourself for a moment if you have your soul in your hands or if some passion or fit of anxiety has robbed you of it…. If yo...

Looking inside ourselves, we can anticipate only harshness from heaven. Looking out to Christ, we can anticipate only gentleness.

Trials teach us what we are; they dig up the soil, and let us see what we are made of.

Too often we fail to appreciate that (the) apprehension of God is not only the test of our worship, but also the test of our spiritual growth. A Christian's real development in spiritual life will...

What you call “worry” . . . I call “preparation.”

Most people can bear adversity. But if you wish to know what a man really is, give him power. This is the supreme test.

[Jesus’s] healings and exorcisms were an intrinsic part of his proclamation of the kingdom (or rule) of God. The mighty deeds and the proclamation must go together; neither can be understood without t...

The real test of being in the presence of God is, that you either forget about yourself altogether or see yourself as a small, dirty object.

So pain endures for a time. Its role is to purge us, to make us to know ourselves, and it drives us to the Lord to plead for mercy.

[Sanctification] is a process that includes on the one hand medication and diet (in the form of biblical instruction and admonition coming in various ways to the heart), and on the other hand tests an...

A God who let us prove his existence would be an idol.

Public confession requires several conditions. First, a person who has acted against the integrity of the Body, the integrity of its faith, must be prepared to expose himself because what matters is h...

Therefore when I admonish you to confession I am admonishing you to be a Christian.

Calls are essentially questions. They aren’t questions you necessarily need to answer outright; they are questions to which you need to respond, expose yourself, and kneel before. You don’t want an an...

One of the truest tests of spiritual maturity is seeing the miraculous in the monotonous.

The family is the test of freedom; because the family is the only thing that the free man makes for himself and by himself.

[The Lord’s Supper] is a visible sermon.

I can’t stress enough that this important process of examination can only be properly done in the context of a local church. You need other Christians who are committed to your spiritual well-being. T...

Trials are intended to make us think, to wean us from the world, to send us to the Bible, to drive us to our knees.