Author: Charles Spurgeon

DAILY PRAYER (BY SPURGEON)

Permit us, gracious Father, to come very near to you. May the drawings of the Divine Spirit now sweetly attract us to God; and, most blessed Jesus, fulfill your office as Mediator, bring us now near to God by your precious blood. Oh, for the power to pray rightly this morning! May I, your servant, have it largely, that he may be able to lead all this people, by the power of the Spirit, close to the mercy-seat.

We adore and bless and magnify our God; not only, O God, for what you are to us, but for what you are in yourself, for you are incomparably glorious. In you, all perfections shine.

Amen.

VERSE OF THE DAY (COMMENTARY BY SPURGEON)

“Happy are the people who know the joyful shout; LORD, they walk in the light from your face.” (Psalm 89:15)

The practical effect of a saving knowledge of the gospel is a holy walk, a walk of communion with God. Dear friends, do you walk in that way? Do you know the joyful sound? Can you discern the difference between the true and the false gospel? Can you distinguish the contrast between the harmonies of the one and the discords of the other? Do you know the inner secret of the heavenly music? Has it ever vibrated in your own souls? Happy are you if this is the case with you.

RECOMMENDED RESOURCE

Study (the entire Bible) with Spurgeon*

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One of my favorite study Bibles is The Spurgeon Study Bible. This is a great tool for deepening your understanding of Scripture.

Two great features: there are hundreds of study notes taken from Spurgeon’s sermons throughout the Bible, and there are short introductions by Spurgeon on every book of the Bible. This is a great way to get a board overview or detailed reflection, right from Spurgeon, on any section of Scripture.

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Get a prayer from Spurgeon in your inbox every day. Subscribe to the Pray with Spurgeon newsletter for free.

DAILY PRAYER (BY SPURGEON)

Oh bring home your prodigal children, and let such as are coming home be met by the loving Father; and may such as have come home have a feast of fat things today. May elder brethren today be made better tempered, be made more in sympathy with the great Father!

May there be blessings all round today for all of us, and so may we together bless and magnify your amazing and sacred name. O one God of Israel, whom we worship, let others worship whom they may; the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob is our God forever and ever, and we worship you, Oh Lord, in the name of Jesus Christ your only-begotten Son

Amen.

VERSE OF THE DAY (COMMENTARY BY SPURGEON)

“Jesus stopped and commanded that he be brought to him. When he came closer, he asked him, ‘What do you want me to do for you?’ ‘Lord,’ he said, ‘I want to see.’” (Genesis 1:1)

It is a great thing to know what you really do want. There are some persons who are so blind that they do not know that they are blind; and because they say, “We see,” therefore is their blindness the more intense. I fear that there is many a person who professes to pray, yet who, if Christ should come into the room, and say, “What do you want me to do for you?” would not know how to answer the question. This man did; and he said, very briefly, and very clearly, but in a very full way, “Lord, that I may receive my sight.”

RECOMMENDED RESOURCE

An incredible testimony of God’s grace to help you hate sin.

God hates sin and loves righteousness, and he’s calling us to think the same way. One of the books that has been most helpful to help me cultivate a hatred for sin and a love for righteousness is Gay Girl, Good God by Jackie Hill Perry.

This book is a memoir describing Jackie’s journey out of sin, by grace. It’s an absolutely beautiful story of God’s power and mercy to save. Reading this book filled me with amazement at how wonderful God and his grace are. I know that it will encourage you.

One of the things I love the most about this book is how its rich theology is described so beautifully. Jackie paints a picture of a God who is worthy of our worship, faith, and obedience — a God who is better than sin.

Buy Gay Girl, Good God: The Story of Who I Was, and Who God Has Always Been:

• Amazon (Paperback, Kindle, or audiobook editions)
• ChristianBook.com (Paperback or ebook editions)

Get a prayer from Spurgeon in your inbox every day. Subscribe to the Pray with Spurgeon newsletter for free.

DAILY PRAYER (BY SPURGEON)

Oh, be very gracious to all your children under temptation; and if any are in very sharp trial, and are also conscious of having brought it upon themselves, which makes the trial worse than ever, yet of your mercy let the fullness of the power of your grace be manifest in them, that in the ages to come they may, with all saints declare the exceeding riches of your power and love in Christ Jesus.

And now, Lord, bless the unconverted that we will see this weekend, or who come into any place of worship. Be pleased to save them; let the eternal purpose be fulfilled in many today. Oh bring home your prodigal children, and let such as are coming home be met by the loving Father; and may such as have come home have a feast of fat things today.

Amen.

VERSE OF THE DAY (COMMENTARY BY SPURGEON)

“…so that in the coming ages he might display the immeasurable riches of his grace through his kindness to us in Christ Jesus.” (Ephesians 2:7)

Brethren, we are to be a show, an exhibition case, in which God will exhibit the riches of his grace in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus. Angels will count it a high joy to study the life of a regenerate man, to see him rise from death in sin to the glory of God in Christ Jesus. What is so precious in God’s esteem ought to excite our praise continually.

RECOMMENDED RESOURCE

Is your view of homosexuality based on Scripture?

Homosexuality continues to be one of the most pressing issues of our day, and Christians who maintain the biblical position that marriage is only a lifelong union between one woman and one man are met with increasing hostility.

When I first read Is God Anti-Gay? by Sam Allberry, I knew that homosexuality was a sin, but I couldn’t defend that position from Scripture. This book is an incredibly helpful read to help you better understand what Christians believe about marriage and how to communicate our beliefs with grace and wisdom to a hostile world.

The author, Sam Allberry, has experienced same-sex attraction for most of his life. While his experience informs his writing, it does not control it — he is robustly biblical.

This is a short book with a big impact. It will fill you with confidence in God’s Word and God’s ways. It will fill you with joy at the marvelous grace that God has lavished on us in Christ.

Buy Is God Anti-Gay?:

• Amazon (Paperback, Kindle, or audiobook editions)
• ChristianBook.com (Paperback, ebook, or audiobook editions)

Get a prayer from Spurgeon in your inbox every day. Subscribe to the Pray with Spurgeon newsletter for free.

DAILY PRAYER (BY SPURGEON)

Oh, for a day’s release from every care! Now break the bands of our yoke. And, oh that we could live above care in the weekdays too, casting all our care on him who cares for us (1 Peter 5:7), and leaving all in those wise hands that rule the world, and can well rule our mean affairs.

Today, gracious Lord, reproach your children and comfort them; also rebuke and reprove as may seem good to you; but oh, sanctify us for the skies, and prepare us for the place which you are preparing for us. The Lord be very mindful of all his sick servants at home, of any that are under depression of spirit, and especially of such as are near to die.

Amen.

VERSE OF THE DAY (COMMENTARY BY SPURGEON)

“Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God, so that he may exalt you at the proper time, casting all your cares on him, because he cares about you.” (1 Peter 5:6–7)

His care, though tender and comprehensive, causes no anxiety to him, for his great mind is more than equal to the task. But our care ferments within us and threatens the destruction of our meager souls. We are to cast our care, which is folly, upon the Lord, for he exercises a care, which is wisdom. Care (worry) to us is exhausting, but God is all sufficient. Care to us is sinful, but God’s care of us is holy. Care distracts us from service, but the divine mind does not forget one thing while remembering another.

RECOMMENDED RESOURCE

Help children see the wonder of Jesus’ healing miracles

A huge chunk of each of the four Gospels is dedicated to telling true stories about Jesus’ healing the sick. There’s a reason for that: these stories have a lot to teach us. They reveal an incredible picture of Christ as God incarnate; his words have authority over all.

With so many healing stories in the Gospels, it can be hard for children to understand what the point of them all is. One book to help you explain the wonder of Jesus’ miracles to your children is The One O’Clock Miracle by Alison Mitchell, illustrated by Catalina Echeverri.

This book tells the story of Jesus healing the official’s son (John 4) in a delightfully fun and faithful way. It will help children be amazed at Jesus’ astounding work in healing the sick.

Buy The One O’Clock Miracle:

• Amazon (Hardback edition)
• ChristianBook.com (Hardback edition)

Get a prayer from Spurgeon in your inbox every day. Subscribe to the Pray with Spurgeon newsletter for free.

DAILY PRAYER (BY SPURGEON)

Oh may this prayer be living worship this morning, the bowing not of heads alone, but of hearts, and the closing not alone of the eyes to things that can be seen, but the closing of the eyelids of the thought to everything worldly. O Lord, imprison us in the grave of Christ today, that within those sacred walls we may find a chamber where our Lord shall reveal himself to us, as he does not reveal himself to the world (John 14:22).

You are a spring shut up, a fountain sealed, O Christ, to us, and we would be such for you; a garden enclosed for our Beloved, wherein he may take his delights. Our soul shall sing for joy, “I am my love’s and my love is mine; he feeds among the lilies” (Song of Solomon 6:3).

Amen.

VERSE OF THE DAY (COMMENTARY BY SPURGEON)

“Peace I leave with you. My peace I give to you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Don’t let your heart be troubled or fearful.” (John 14:27)

Christian joy does not come from what we have, nor does sorrow come from what we lack. Our happiness does not come from the world, and neither does our depression—that is, if we live near to God. Our sorrows usually spring out of ourselves, and when self is conquered, sorrow is, to a great extent, banished from the human heart. We must get rid of this rebellion against the Most High, or else our hearts will continue to be troubled.

RECOMMENDED RESOURCE

A distraction-free resource to help you study the Bible.*

In our fast-paced world, it can be hard to peel away from screens for long enough to have a meaningful encounter with God in his Word. It can be helpful to have resources to help guide us and keep us from getting distracted too quickly.

One helpful resource is the Consider Him Scripture memorization booklet from Cemented Co. This booklet offers a “notification-free” approach to study, understand, apply, and memorize five key passages from the book of Hebrews.

Memorizing these passages will be an incredibly valuable use of your time, and Consider Him is a great resource to help you along the way.

Buy Consider Him from CementedCo.com.

Get a prayer from Spurgeon in your inbox every day. Subscribe to the Pray with Spurgeon newsletter for free.

DAILY PRAYER (BY SPURGEON)

O Lord, give us more and more to have the new life; yes, and to have it more abundantly, for this is one of the objects of his coming. May the new life always rule us, may we walk by its power, may we have strength through its influence, may we be elevated by its energies, may we be indeed entirely subjugated, as to our own entire manhood, to the control of the Holy Spirit through the new-born life. We do pant for this.

We ask that we may be in the Spirit, and know the fullness of his quickening power. May we do nothing after the dead manner of formality. May there be no dead hymn, nor dead prayer.

Amen.

VERSE OF THE DAY (COMMENTARY BY SPURGEON)

“Moses my servant is dead. Now you and all the people prepare to cross over the Jordan to the land I am giving the Israelites.” (Joshua 1:2)

May we not only be saved from but saved to. Saved from sin—that makes us safe. Saved to holiness—that makes us happy. May we realize our completeness in Christ this day and cease from the wanderings of fear. It is time we took possession of that goodly heritage the Lord has made our own, for in Christ Jesus “we have obtained an inheritance” and have the guarantee of it in our possession of the Spirit of God. We have lingered long enough in the wilderness.

This verse and commentary were taken from the Spurgeon Study Bible. This month only, you can get the Spurgeon Study Bible for 50% off — use promo code SPURGEONBOOKS. Click here to learn more.*

RECOMMENDED RESOURCE

God’s Plan to Rid You of Sin and Make you Like Jesus

God doesn’t just want to save you from hell and leave you alone — he has a plan to redeem everything about you. He wants to rescue you from sin and bring you into a new life of loving and serving him.

To every Christian, that sounds amazing. We all want to be more like Christ and we all want to stop sinning, but there is a lot of confusion about how that happens. How will God change our lives?

That’s the point of Matt Chandler’s book, Recovering Redemption: A Gospel-Saturated Perspective on Change. This book explains the incredible work that God is going to do in your life to redeem everything about you.

This book will fill you with thankfulness and amazement at God’s work to save you from the penalty and power of sin every day. It will also help you understand your role in fighting sin.

This is a don’t-miss book to help make you more like Jesus. I hope you’ll grab one today.

Buy Recovering Redemption:

• Amazon (Paperback, Kindle, or audiobook editions)
• ChristianBook.com (Paperback or ebook editions)

Get a prayer from Spurgeon in your inbox every day. Subscribe to the Pray with Spurgeon newsletter for free.

DAILY PRAYER (BY SPURGEON)

May grace so sanctify us that we may reckon ourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord (Romans 6:11). O God, we have too much of the ill alive about us. Go on to crucify it: let it die and, painful and lingering though the death may be, may we reckon the thing to be dead, because it is crucified, and never treat it as though it were a living thing to be fed and to have provision made for it: but let it die, and let it be buried.

May those of us who bear in our body the marks of the Lord Jesus, be solemnly concerned that our baptism should be no fiction; but that we should be really baptized into the death of Christ with all the fullness of the deadening power that is about the sacred burial by fellowship with him.

Amen.

VERSE OF THE DAY (COMMENTARY BY SPURGEON)

“So, you too consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.” (Romans 6:11)

Every believer is truly dead to sin, because Christ has died to sin. The Lord Jesus Christ is our covenant Head; and what he did, he did in the room, and place, and stead of his people; he did it all representatively on their behalf; so that, what he did, they virtually did through him as their Representative.

Always remember that the federal principle has been adopted by God in his dealings with the human race from the very beginning. We were all, representatively, in Adam; and, hence, Adam’s sin brought us all into transgression and condemnation, so that we have all become partakers in the result of Adam’s one sin. It was not actually ours, but it became ours by imputation, and it brought upon us all its terrible consequences because Adam was our federal head. In the same way, the Lord Jesus Christ is the federal Head and Representative of his people; and what he has done, he has done on their behalf, and it is reckoned as though they had done it themselves.

RECOMMENDED RESOURCE

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Buy the Spurgeon Study Bible on LifeWay.com (Use promo code SPURGEONBOOKS to save 50%)

Get a prayer from Spurgeon in your inbox every day. Subscribe to the Pray with Spurgeon newsletter for free.

DAILY PRAYER (BY SPURGEON)

Our hearts devoutly believe that Christ has risen from the dead; but Lord, we want by your Holy Spirit to know the facts in their living power. We wish that we might have fellowship with our Lord, who is our Head, in all this. Oh, that we might know how to die with him, and to live with him in newness of life. O God, we do rejoice that the old man was crucified with him (Romans 6:6).

We would daily mortify the flesh with its affections and lusts. We wish to be to the world, to sin, to selfishness as dead and buried men; as dead men, out of mind, so would we be. Oh, that no faculty might hear the voice of the charmer when it charms us towards sin! May we be delivered from the mere power to obey the lusts of the flesh and the temptations of the devil.

Amen.

VERSE OF THE DAY (COMMENTARY BY SPURGEON)

“For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body ruled by sin might be rendered powerless so that we may no longer be enslaved to sin.” (Romans 6:6)

We are to regard ourselves as persons that have been dead. We are ourselves, it is true; and yet in another sense we are not our own selves. We are not to look upon ourselves as though we owed any kind of service to the power which we obeyed before we knew the Lord. We are new people, we have got a new life, and have entered upon a new existence—the old man is crucified with him.

There was no getting free from the power of sin, except by dying to it; but, being dead to sin, we are free from it; and, now being dead that way, we have entered into a new life that we might live as Christ lives.

RECOMMENDED RESOURCE

The Bible’s Big Story — A Musical for the Whole Family (Seriously)

Over the last year, my family has listened to The Greatest Story Ever Told: The Bible album by High Point Church almost every day. This is a super fun collection of songs that tells the story of the whole Bible for the whole family.

This album will make you laugh, dance, and long for the day when Christ returns to make all things new. The songs are seriously fun and seriously deep.

If you have kids, start listening now.

(And if you don’t have kids…. start listening now. These songs are amazing!)

Listen on Spotify, YouTube Music, Apple Music, or Amazon Music.