Praying through the Sermon on the Mount

Jesus' Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7) clearly reveals the essential elements for personal revival. If you will live in light of these truths, you can experience daily, continuous revival. To fail to heed Christ's words will lead to fruitlessness and despair.

Carefully read each Scripture and search your heart in the light of Christ's words, that they might bring you to greater repentance and a hunger to be conformed to the image of Christ. As you proceed, circle the areas of greatest need and seek God for cleansing and revival.

Chapter five

1. Do I have a genuine poverty of spirit? Do I recognize my own inability and the critical need for God in my life? (5:3)

2. Do I mourn over my sin? When I sin, is there a godly sorrow that leads to a repentance without regret? (5:4; 2 Cor. 7:10)

3. Am I meek? Am I willing to be governed by God alone? Is the quality of brokenness clearly visible in my life? (5:5)

4. Am I hungry and thirsty for rightness in every realm of my life? with God? with others? in every situation, circumstance, decision? (5:6)

5. Am I merciful toward others? Do I exhibit a spirit of forgiveness? (5:7)

6. Am I pure in heart? Are my motives pure? Have I laid down other allegiances and affections that I have cherished more than Jesus? Do I have a single-minded devotion to Jesus Christ? (5:8; 2 Cor. 11:3)

7. Do I seek to be at peace with all men without compromising my convictions? Do I make peace when it is within my power to do so? (5:9; Rom. 12:18)

8. Am I standing so visibly for Christ that I am in opposition to the world, the flesh, and the devil and, because of that, suffering persecution? Do I rejoice when men revile me and say all kinds of evil against me falsely for Christ's sake? (5:10-12)

9. Does my life create a hunger and thirst for God in the lives of others? Am I being used of God now to preserve and maintain the truth? (5:13)

10. Does my life illuminate the truth about God and man before others? Do people see my good works (the fruit of the Spirit) and glorify God? (5:14-16; Gal. 5:22-23)

11. Are there any commandments, even the smallest ones, which I do not regard as binding on my life? Am I teaching others to do the same either by expression or example? (5:17-19; Deut. 8:3b)

12. Is my righteousness merely external, like that of the Pharisees, instead of coming from my heart? (5:20; 22:36-38)

13. Am I angry with my brothers? Am I guilty of calling others names, criticizing others, or wrongly accusing others? (5:21-22)

14. Is there anyone, anywhere, who has something against me whom I have not approached to seek reconciliation? (5:23-24)

15. Am I overcoming lust daily? Are my eyes on Christ alone as my source of satisfaction? Do I have a single-minded devotion in my marriage to my spouse? (5:27-32)

16. Do I make oaths? Do I feel the necessity to make up for a lack of integrity by assuring people that what I'm saying is really true? Do I ever fail to speak with honesty and integrity? Do I exaggerate or "stretch the truth"? (5:34-37)

17. Am I taking revenge on anyone by my words or actions? even subtly? Am I failing to love them aggressively, merely tolerating them? (5:38-39)

18. Am I giving to my enemies, loving them, praying for them, greeting them? (5:40-47)

19. Am I seeking to be "perfect" or complete in every realm of my life even as my heavenly Father is perfect? (5:48)

Chapter six

20. Am I practicing my righteousness before men? Am I anxious to let people know, one way or another, how spiritual I am--what religious activities I'm involved in? (6:1)

21. When I give, do I make sure others know about it? Am I secretly pleased when they discover it? (6:2-4)

22. When I pray, am I anxious to impress others? Do I love to pray publicly so that others can hear me and be impressed? (6:5)

23. When I pray, do I go into the inner room of my heart and shut the door? Do I pray to my Father? Am I experiencing genuine communion and intimacy with Him? (6:6)

24. Do I use meaningless repetitions in prayer? Do I secretly think I can impress God with my many words, or long moments spent in prayer? Am I resting and depending on my own efforts and abilities to gain God's attention rather than the merits of Christ alone? (6:7)

25. Am I acknowledging and praising God in prayer? Am I hallowing His Name? Am I praying for His honor and glory? Do my requests reflect a desire for His glory, not just a desire for my own comfort, pleasure, and good will? (6:9)

26. Am I aggressively praying for God's kingdom to be established? (6:10)

27. Am I praying for God's will to be done--not merely interested in my selfish desires being granted? (6:10)

28. Am I depending upon Christ alone as the source of my every need--my daily bread? Do I come to Him with every need of life? (6:11)

29. Am I consistently dealing with sin in my life, seeking God's cleansing and forgiveness? (6:12)

30. Am I praying for and depending on God's protection from temptation and deliverance from evil? (6:13)

31. Is there anyone who has sinned against me, offended me, or harmed me in any way that I have not truly and fully forgiven? (6:14-15)

32. Am I fasting? Am I abstaining from worldly issues that cloud my spiritual vision? Have I surrendered every material thing in my life that I felt I cannot do without? that I couldn't or wouldn't give up on a moment's notice? (6:16)

33. When I fast, am I anxious for others to know? (6:16-18)

34. Do I have an over-attention to storing up material wealth? Do I own a lot of unnecessary things? Are material possessions seen as "treasures" to me? (6:19)

35. Am I so investing my life and resources that I am laying up treasures and rewards in heaven? (6:20-21)

36. Do I have anything that is a master to me other than the Lord Jesus Christ? Am I holding on to anything in my life that is causing me in some way to treat Christ and the things of God lightly? causing me to despise Christ or give Him less than His rightful place? (6:24)

37. Am I worrying about material things? about what I will eat or drink or wear? Am I worried unduly about my physical appearance? Am I exhibiting a lack of faith by worrying about anything material? (6:25-31)

38. Am I seeking first of all His kingdom and His righteousness in everything? Am I investing my life and time in eternal, kingdom business (i.e., the Word of God and the lives of others)? (6:33)

39. Am I worrying about the future on any level--worrying about myself, my family, my job, my income, my physical comfort? (6:34)

Chapter seven


40. Am I judging others in a critical, condemning, or hypocritical way? (7:1-2)

41. Am I more concerned about changing others than I am about dealing with my own spiritual deficiencies? (7:3-4)

42. Do I try to correct others without first humbly correcting myself? (7:5)

43. Am I asking, seeking, and knocking before the Lord? Am I consistently and continually looking to Him with dependency and expectation, realizing that "He is, and that He is a rewarder of them that seek Him"? (7:7-11; Heb. 11:6)

44. Am I treating others as I would desire them to treat me? Do I give others as much honor, respect, understanding, and attention as I give myself? (7:12)

45. Have I entered the narrow gate that leads to true eternal life? (7:13-14)

46. Am I wary of false prophets? Do I have such a relationship with God and His Word that I am sensitive and discerning regarding that which is really true and that which is false--not naive and gullible regarding spiritual deception? (7:15-20)

47. Am I trusting in my religious activities to make me right with God? Am I vainly believing that external righteousness alone will make me right before God? (7:21-23)

48. Am I consistently in a position to hear the Word of God? Am I listening intently to what God is trying to say to me, not merely paying casual attention? (7:24)

49. Am I actively and immediately obeying God as He speaks to my heart through His Word? Is my life being built upon God's Word through instant obedience to Him? (7:24-27)