Doing the same thing every day? Again and again? Careful: that’s how life slips away and regrets start accumulating. Wait a minute you say; how is going to work, mowing the grass, going to the grocery, raising kids, going to church and cleaning the house a bad thing? It’s not a bad thing. Everybody has daily chores to perform, but of all the things you do on a routine basis, which ones are the most important? Going to work to put food on the table is very important, but what we’re talking about here is the “examined life”.
First Corinthians in the Bible spells it out for us. It says in chapter eleven verse 28 that, “A man ought to examine himself before he eats of the bread and drinks of the cup.” Huh? Is the Bible saying we ought to examine ourselves before we eat every meal? Please remember that we’re reading the Bible, not Emily Post on etiquette. Looking at it in context, the Apostle Paul is reminding those in the early church what happened on the very night Christ was betrayed.
You remember the “Last Supper”, the meal Jesus had with his disciples? When Jesus took bread and broke it to pass around, he told his followers, “This is my body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of me.” Jesus then took the cup of wine and told his followers, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood; do this, whenever you drink it, in remembrance of me.” The bread remains bread but represents His body. It’s an illustration, like “I am the door” (John 10:7) The New Testament, or New Covenant, is God’s new arrangement with men based on the death of Christ.
Paul was telling those in the early church, to examine themselves before they eat the bread and drink of the cup. This ritual is known as communion in Protestant and Catholic churches today. Paul was admonishing those who routinely take communion to remember the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ in a worthy manner. Paul was warning them to beware of unconfessed sin.
Bottom line
When we examine ourselves: Prayer changes the prayer.
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