Eight Days a Week – Really?
Sometimes late at night when it was about time to turn the TV off – which didn’t happen often or for very long except during sleep hours – I would be headed for bed and Mom would remind me that we needed to pray. I admit that at times I just wanted to sleep, but we would gather all the family still awake, and we’d pray. She’d mention each of her 8 children and our families, calling on God’s blessings on each.
When she could she’d kneel by her bed, or pray from her favorite chair, or pray lying in bed, but friend, she prayed. She’d thank God for many blessings. Though she was not at all wealthy or even middle-class, she was content with what she had and rarely complained about her station in life.
Would you find time to pray? Use the following Beatitude Morning and Evening Prayer Guide or make a list or use an app; and pray to get to know your Heavenly Father. He loves you more than you know. He wants us to love Him and others. One way to get to that place is quiet, consistent, persistent listening in prayer.
Conversations are listen and talk, consider and reflect, listen to understand rather than always having the last word to be understood. If you are like me, you could use practice listening better in our conversations with God and with people near us!
Beatitude Prayer Guide – “How’s Your Heart?”
Did I live loved and give Jesus’ love freely today…starting with my closest relationships?
Matthew 5:3-12
Directions: Would you please pray one or more of these Morning Prayers before leaving home? Would you ask God the Evening questions and listen to Him using the Evening Prayer before going to sleep at night?
1. Morning Prayer – Father, may I realize that I am 100% needy of Your love and provision 100% of the time? Help me not feel or act superior or inferior to others; help me to live loved and give Jesus’ love freely.
Evening Prayer – Father, are there those to whom I felt or acted inferior or superior today? If so, I admit it to you now that I am neither. I am just as loved by You and just as needy of You, as every other person. Are you my greatest source of hope for a blessed and enviable life?
2. Morning Prayer – Father, may I bring my pain to you today when I am hurt by others or when I hurt others? Help me to admit my wrong and hurt to You and others as You direct.
Evening Prayer – Father, did I do damage to others today leaving them in their aloneness when I could have shown your love? Was my heart damaged today being left in my aloneness? Did I admit either or both to you? Does anyone but You, Father, have ultimate control of my thoughts and emotions?
3. Morning Prayer – Father, may I submit to your opinion of me and conduct myself in a way that shows I value your will and ways more than I do anyone else’s; even more than my own.
Evening Prayer – Father, today was my life a clear example of someone who didn’t live for myself but lived it in complete submission to Your will and way? Does Your opinion of me matter most? Am I free of insecurity and fear, knowing you keep your promises to me?
4. Morning Prayer – Father, rather than do good deeds today to make myself acceptable to You or liked by others, may I do what I do from gratitude because You already love and accept me?
Evening Prayer – Father, did I walk today in the satisfaction of knowing I am loved and accepted not because I am good but because Jesus, Who lives in me, declares me to be acceptable to You?
5. Morning Prayer – Father, may I forgive others from the heart today as You forgive me, whether the wrong I experienced was recent, distant past, a single incident, or continuous over time?
Evening Prayer – Father, was there anyone today to whom I didn’t show mercy but held them at arm’s length or kept them caged in my prison of unforgiveness? Is my heart free of anger and bitterness? Did I yield control of my life to anyone who doesn’t truly love me?
6. Morning Prayer – Father, may I hold nothing in my heart that would be considered an unnecessary weight or unconfessed sin, so that my heart can be pure, and I can see You as you truly are?
Evening Prayer – Father, is there anything in my heart that would be considered a burden (damage others inflicted on me) or a sin (damage I did to others)? Is there anything in either category in my heart as I prepare to sleep and rest?
7. Morning Prayer – Father, may I live as a peacemaker today; and be in Your service bringing people together and to You, as any loved child in Your forever family is able to do?
Evening Prayer – Father, was I a peacemaker or a trouble maker today? Was there any gap between two people or between You and another person where I served as a bridge at Your direction or did I make the gap bigger in any relationship?
8. Morning Prayer – Father, as a child of Yours living my life today, my acts of service may be appreciated or not, and my motives may, at times, be understood or not. Whether or not I am accepted and appreciated by others, may I continue to love.
Evening Prayer – Father, what was it today that challenged my faith or my trust in You? Was I stopped in my loving devotion to You or my service to others because someone misunderstood or challenged me? Was I a resilient Christian today, loving even when ignored or rejected?
Note: Each of these 8 prayer reminders is based on a Beatitude: Matthew 5:3-12