Year-End Devotional. Looking back to go forward!
29 December 2008
At this time of year people rush to make New Year resolutions, but most people will have failed to keep these resolutions by the end of January! Why? Because resolutions require change. They don’t just happen by wishing! I wish I could lose weight, but unless I do something about it and make time to exercise and cook more healthily, I will fail. Resolutions require time too, something that most of us already struggle to juggle in our lives.
In addition, we cannot grow, unless we reflect on where we are, or have come from. And at the end of what has been a dramatic year globally, it is important to take stock of where we are now, so that we can move forward with God into 2009. One way of taking stock that I have adapted, is based on an ancient Jesuit prayer tradition – St Ignatius of Loyola’s Examen of Consciousness. Now this ‘Examen’ is normally prayed at the end of a day, but I thought it would be helpful to try a one-off mini ‘examination’ of the whole year.
Examining 2008 (10-15 minutes)
Test yourselves, to see whether you are living in faith; examine yourselves. Perhaps you yourselves do not realize that Christ Jesus is in you. (2 Cor 13:5)
A mini review of the year is like a video or DVD playback. You re-live key moments on the video screen of your mind, by pressing the replay button, and then you use the pause button to re-live or savour particular key moments.
Before you begin, pray for your spiritual growth and ask the Holy Spirit to help you to look at your attitudes, actions and motivations honestly and realistically. When the Spirit of truth comes he will guide you into all truth. (John 16:13)
1. Now replay and pause those moments this past year that you enjoyed and were happy with and have a heart-to-heart chat with God about them.
Counting your blessings, thank God for those special times in your life and for the different people he has placed in your life.
2. Now replay and pause those moments that were a struggle for you and that you were unhappy with and have a heart-to-heart chat with God about these.
Pray for forgiveness for your failures and ask God to help you cope better with situations like this in the following year.
Now spend a few minutes listening to God allowing him to teach, challenge and encourage you.
Finish by thanking God for his presence in your life and commit 2009 into his loving care by praying this ancient Jesuit prayer:
Take, Lord, and Receive
Take, Lord, and receive all my liberty,
my memory, my understanding, and my entire will.
All I have and call my own.
Whatever I have or hold, you have given me.
I return it all to you and surrender it wholly to be governed by your will.
Give me only your love and your grace and I am rich enough
and ask for nothing more.
(St. Ignatius, from the end of the Spiritual Exercises)
Our God is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine….(Eph 3:20)
