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“You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart. If your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body be thrown into hell.

And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body go into hell. “It was also said, ‘Whoever divorces his wife, let him give her a certificate of divorce.’ But I say to you that everyone who divorces his wife, except on the ground of sexual immorality, makes her commit adultery, and whoever marries a divorced woman commits adultery.

“Again you have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not swear falsely, but shall perform to the Lord what you have sworn.’ But I say to you, Do not take an oath at all, either by heaven, for it is the throne of God, or by the earth, for it is his footstool, or by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great King. And do not take an oath by your head, for you cannot make one hair white or black. Let what you say be simply ‘Yes’ or ‘No’; anything more than this comes from evil.

Matthew 5: 27-37

Father of All Graces, I come to you in Jesus’ name with a grateful heart for all your goodness, and all the benefits with whom you have crowned our days.

Lord, forgive me when I lust after the things that this world offers me, and when in my foolishness I even try to pursue them leaving aside the path of holiness. Right hands and right eyes are no longer right if they lead us wrong, and how many times I have gone wrong!

You are King over all, please, I pray, stretch your scepter over the realm of my inward lusts. Help me to guard my mind with your Word, so that I will not allow any sinful thought to remain there, and grow and be made manifest in the flesh. Help me to battle against all sin the moment it starts playing in mind. Help me, Lord! Make me pure.

Help me to put away those things, those friends, those books, that music, that __________ which I know always leads me into sin. Help me to love you more than the sin within in me. Help me remember that to be cast into hell is too great a risk to run, merely to indulge the evil eye of lust or curiosity.

Father, let you Word be always my law. No matter how much our civil laws change, no matter how many Scriptures people twist, let me always be faithful to to your Word.  Your laws are perfect from the beginning; help me as I meditate on your Word to love it more than life. More than my own “wants.”

Lord, let my words be always true, let my words be whole, complete, truthful, always in agreement with your Word and my conduct -among the saints and those around me that still don’t know you- Help me, O Father, to speak the truth in every utterance of my lips.  I pray that character and conduct  be such that all acquainted with me will have the assurance that my word is my bond. I pray that my communications will be all  “yea” in the promise and “yea” in the performance, so that there will be no need for me to appeal to God in witness of my veracity. Let my ordinary speech, my day-to-day conversation be pleasant to you and to those who hear me.

And in this age of technology in which we write our profiles, we define who we are, let us be whole, always true to You. Help us be the same person, ruled by the same God, behind the screen and in the kitchen. May our lives, all of them, be pleasant to you, Oh Father.

I pray this in the name of Jesus, my Savior and King,

Amen.

Becky

 Note: All the phrases in italics are not mine, I took them from C.H. Spurgeon’s commentary on Matthew and from Arthur W. Pink’s commentary on the Sermon on the Mount.