📖 Biblical Definition
The nightly discipline of reviewing the day with God — tracing His mercies, confessing the day's sins, and entrusting tomorrow to His keeping. The practice has roots in Psalm 4:4 (commune with your own heart upon your bed, and be still) and in Psalm 119:55, 62 (I have remembered thy name, O LORD, in the night... At midnight I will rise to give thanks unto thee because of thy righteous judgments). The medieval monastic practice developed the discipline; Ignatius of Loyola formalized it as the Examen in his Spiritual Exercises. The Protestant Puritan tradition independently cultivated similar practice. A typical examen has five movements: (1) gratitude for the day's mercies; (2) prayer for the Spirit's light; (3) review of the day from morning to evening; (4) confession of failures and reception of forgiveness; (5) anticipation and entrustment of tomorrow. The conscience cleared before sleep is the conscience available for tomorrow's discipleship.
📜 Webster 1828 Definition
EXAMINE: To inspect carefully; to scrutinize; to weigh and try; in spiritual use, the searching of one's heart before God.
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1. To inspect carefully; to scrutinize; to weigh and try. 2. To interrogate; to question. 3. In spiritual use, to search one's heart, motives, and actions before God for repentance and renewal. The examen is the soul's nightly accounting.
📖 Key Scripture
Psalm 4:4 — "Be angry, and do not sin. Meditate within your heart on your bed, and be still."
Lamentations 3:40 — "Let us search out and examine our ways, and turn back to the Lord."
Psalm 139:23 — "Search me, O God, and know my heart; try me, and know my anxieties."
2 Corinthians 13:5 — "Examine yourselves as to whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves."
⚠️ Modern Corruption
Modern believers fall asleep to screens and wake to notifications, never reviewing the day with God. Scripture commands honest end-of-day examination.
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The day ends in a binge of streaming or scrolling, the conscience anesthetized rather than addressed. Sins of the day go unnamed; mercies go uncounted; tomorrow inherits the unfinished business of today. The pillow becomes a place of unconsciousness rather than communion.
The Psalmist commands meditation on the bed. Lamentations commands self-examination. The disciple who pauses ten minutes before sleep to review the day — thanks for mercies, confession of sins, surrender of tomorrow — sleeps cleaner, wakes clearer, and walks in the daily rhythm the saints have always known.
🔗 Greek & Hebrew Roots
Greek dokimazo (to test, prove) and peirazo (to examine). Hebrew chaqar — to search out.
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G1381 — dokimazo — to test, examine, prove
H2713 — chaqar — to search, examine, explore
H974 — bachan — to test, try, examine
Usage
"Do not sleep on a sin you can confess in five minutes."
"Count the mercies before counting sheep."
"The day reviewed with God is the day truly lived."